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Building a Table by Re-Purposing a Chandelier

Building a Table by Re-Purposing a Chandelier

re purposed chandelierMy wife decided she wanted a ceiling fan in our living room instead of the chandelier that was hanging there.  After I installed the new ceiling fan, I didn’t want to throw away the old chandelier.  It was still in good shape, and I just hated throwing things away, so I sat it out in the shop.

For months, I tripped over it and moved it around while I was building my client work.  Finally, I had had enough.  It was time to figure out what to do with it.  After taking a few measurements, I decided it would serve as a nice table base.  The main decorative supports measured just less than 18 inches, which would make for a decent height for a plant stand.

Next was to decide what to make the top out of; since the base was black, I decided to use some leftover beetle kill pine I had from the kitchen table build.  Once finished, the gray streaks from the beetle boreholes turn a dark grey to black, which would go well with the base.

metal cutting wheelTo start the build, I removed the glass fixtures, got out my cut-off wheel, and started to cut away anything that was not going to be the base of the table.  The air-powered cut-off wheel worked well to cut through the welds, and I used my angle grinder to smooth out any sharp areas left.

jig for aligning the legsTo help lay out the legs and try to get them to stand flat, I clamped a piece of plywood into the vice so I would have something to help align the legs and mark out where I would attach them to each other and the top.

driving bolts for assemblyTo assemble it was another challenge; as of this build, I had not replaced my welder, so I could not simply weld the legs together.  I decided to bolt them together.  I drilled pilot holes and drove some bolts through.  To cover up the bolts, I used the same tie wire and wrapped it as neatly as I could around the junction of the legs.

decorative wire wrapI did run into a bit of a problem where the wire came through to power the light bulbs; I wasn’t sure what to do with the hole.  After pondering it for a bit, I decided to use some metal tie wire to wrap around the area with the hole in hopes it would look like a decorative feature.  I just took my time when wrapping the wire to make it as neat as possible.

blending paint on steel legTo blend the tie wire and marks left behind by the grinder together, I sprayed on a coat of black paint.

circle cutting jig for routerFor the top, I used basic woodworking techniques.  I jointed the edges of the wood, glued them together, and ran them through the thickness planer to even it all out.  I used my shop-made circle-cutting jig to cut it out.  My shop-made jig works really well. However, I have been looking at the circle-cutting jig Rockler sells, mainly because it is set to cut an ellipse and a circle.

round table with hand built steel furniture for legsI finished it using a wipe-on poly from Minwax. I think it turned out pretty well.  I do need to revisit either the top by making it smaller or the base to spread out the legs to give it a wider stance.  As it sits now, if I put a little weight on the edge, it tips over.  I think once I tinker with it a bit, I can solve that issue, and it will be a stable plant stand.


I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.

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