Anyone designed a chandelier?

[Bob Elliott]

Anyone ever designed a chandelier? We need a light over our dining room table and instead of paying a fortune I thought I would make something out of wood and glass. If anyone has a design they would like to share please post.

[Dave Richards]

I've been thinking of doing something similar. We went to a huge lighting store and wandered around for about an hour. I was hoping to see something and say, "That's it." Not one of the fixtures came anywhere close.

I've got some ideas in my head. I just need to get models made. Do you have a furniture style the chandelier needs to go with?

[Bob Elliott]

This is a picture of the table a friend gave us. We bought the house in August and I have been working on it ever since. We took the existing chandelier down to paint the ceiling and my 3 year old son threw something and broke it. Now we have to replace it and because of the remodelling funds are tight.

The table is solid teak. Our friend had it made while she lived in Taiwan. It is a beautiful table that deserves a very nice light above it.


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[Jamie Buxton]

I've made a couple. One bit of advice is to start with the electrical bits. Figure out what kind of socket you want to use, how it is going to fasten to the chandelier structure, and how wires are going to get there. Then make sure you can buy those bits. The issue is that there's not a lot of choice in the electrical bits. You have to use what is being manufactured. In contrast, you can make wood do darn near anything. If you start with the woodworking, you may paint yourself into a corner.

[Alan Caro]

Bob Elliott,

I've designed a lot of lighting over the years, but mostly metal and glass and quite modern.

One of my favorite designers and that might be a more appropriate style for your setting and wood and glass construction is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and here is a particularly elegant design and one more Artsy Craftsy>




A surprising number of these fixtures that were originally metal and glass, it seems to me might be adapted into wood and glass. Another Mackintosh >



There are also the multitudinous designs of Frank Lloyd Wright while still in his Arts and Crafts period, and Greene and Greene in Pasadena, though they are very strongly Mission style.


Alan Caro