I’ve been hunting for a new chandelier to go in the dining room for about four months now. Throughout constant thrifting and ebay scouring nothing popped up that was affordable or amazing enough to warrant purchase.

But, while I was on the hunt I did fall in love with one lighting designers work. At many MANY thousands of dollars for each handmade chandelier it was a totally unattainable item.

Except…

The lovely and talented Lindsey Adelman posted a DIY version of her chandelier design including a parts list and how-to instructions.

I changed her design (seen above) by switching it to a hardwired installation and shifting / tilting the way the armatures are designed to extend.

OK, apologies but this whole DIY light project was a bit of a test run due to improvising so many changes to the original instructions on the fly. I didn’t document what went down as it exploded over two extremely frustrating days that included a huge learning curve and bigger mess.

All the kinks aren’t worked out with my adjusted design. If you want to try Lindsey’s DIY instructions just follow them closely – it will totally work.

F*ck yeah! It totally works.

Surprisingly, it was much easier to make a wire harness than I imagined.

Now that I have the basics (sort of) down and a little more experience with the many little particulars and issues inherent in lighting design I want to try out a smaller version for the pink bathroom. I’ll totally do a step by step DIY for that nonsense.

The project cost about $120 in lamp parts, one trip to Home Depot, two days of labor and some pretty intense arguing, jimmy-rigging and brainstorming with the Boy. All completely worth it – I love it!