Let there be Light!
While the recessed lighting we have is nice for getting a nice bright room, it doesn't do much in terms of ambiance. The idea a chandelier with batterie candles to look just like the real deal and some wall candles to finish the look.
The Chandelier
Why battery candles? We could have added an actual chandelier into the existing electrical grid, but for one I didn't really find any chandeliers that matched my vision for this, as well as us not wanting to mess with having to paint the ceiling, which would be necessary to lay the electricity where we want it without having exposed cords anywhere.
As luck has it, I found this contraption on craigslist for $10 which will be a great base for my candles to sit on.
The previous owner had a string of lights wrapped around the metal and used it as an outside lighting installation, but those string lights came off easy and I now have a great frame for my chandelier.
Next step I had to find the "right" battery candles that would work with my vision. I found these LED candles on Amazon. They were for one affordable but also cased in real wax and of varying heights.
Even though the candles looked decent I wanted to take it an extra step further when creating a platform for them on the chandelier. - EXTRA WAX DRIPS. I always loved the look of wax that has been dropped over a long time and wanted to capture that look and texture for my chandelier and candles as well. The first step was to build a base for each of the candles on the chandelier. I came across this styrofoam (rather dense - much harder than floral foam) cones at the store and went for it as they were the cheapest option at hand. - I would think any other foam or even cardboard would do the trick here. (Just keep in mind that it will need to be somewhat heat resistant)
I then took a knife and cut it into 2-inch discs.
Note that I only cared about the first 4 inches of the cone as the rest started to be much narrower than my candles.
I then cut out a crescent of the larger disc to fit the two discs snuggly next to each other. - And yes I see Pacman too. I then "gracefully" (brute force) forced the discs onto the metal frame. Some of them put up a bit of a fight, so I used an Exacto knife to cut a small incision to better guide the metal into the foam.
Find some boxes or items of your choice ( I had bed risers laying around for some reason) to prop up the entire ring, so each candle cluster has enough space underneath to create nice wax drips. Therefore, make sure to cover your work surface to catch any and all drippings from the next few steps.
The next step is to protect your candles. I used one layer of aluminum foil and then an outer layer of parchment paper for each candle. (No worries if there is bunching etc, just make sure you also cover the bottom of the candles)
For those of you who have read my Dragon story, you know the next part is both my favorite and my most feared - HOT GLUE! - In essence, you want to encase the bottom half of your candle with hot glue to create a base for your wax. Why bother with this step? I could've dripped wax directly onto the candles, but we need the ability to change the batteries. Having a hot glue frame, which will essentially turn into flexible plastic, allows you to change out batteries or even candles as needed.
I used about 2 large sticks of hot glue per set of candles. Once the hot glue was hot no more (cooled off) I pulled out the candles and was left with this lovely cast.
Now comes the more tedious part - melting actual wax on top of the hot glue mold.
Finding the right wax was harder than I thought - For one I wanted an off-white similar to the LED candles, and secondly, I wanted un-scented candles which seemed to be the issue at least where we live. But as so often Target came through and I ended up with tapered candles which matched the color perfectly.
As for my melting method, I wouldn't even call it a method rather than madness of just dripping wax and watching it dry, making sure to cover every inch of the hot glue layer. - As a side note, this bit started to feel a bit like I was having a seance pretty fast.
Once the main candle casing was called I turned them upside down to cover the bottom of each candle pair.
Note: To cover all 8 candles (4 sets of 2) I used almost the whole 12 pack of candles.
Now that the covers were done I added some melted wax drops to the candles themselves for a finishing touch.
The candleholders
For the candle holders, I followed the same process as for the chandelier, with the only difference being the LED candle choice. I picked these from Joann as they fit the fixtures and used AA batteries which we can recharge.
!!! Watch out for the big reveal of the full basement to see them in action !!!
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