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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Let there be Light - A DIY to Hanging a Chandelier

by: Ashley

I've never truly had my own place before. Yes I've had an apartment. But you can't paint the walls, or change out the fixtures or update the flooring or the appliances. So living in a house is a whole new experience for me.  If I'm not happy with something, I can just change it.. well of course there's always a budget issue... but that's not important right now!

Exhibit A:
Brass chandeliers that seem to be "builder-grade" for all homes built circa 2000

Well this is definitely not my style! So I decided to change them out... only I actually had no clue how to go about that.  But my honey came to the rescue! And I found out that it actually isn't hard at all.
1. Remove the old chandelier. Use a flat head to "release" the plate from the ceiling (check for any knobs or screws that might be holding it up).
2. Make sure the power switch is off.  Pull the cables out from the outlet box in the ceiling and remove the clamps holding the wires from the chandelier to the wires from the house.
3. Follow the instructions from your new chandelier so you know what order the hardware should be in. But basically, you just have to wrap the wires around the wires to the house (it's all color coded) and place the clamp on them to keep them together.


And in less than an hour you have an updated light fixture!! Well two fixtures in my case. I'm sure there are more informative sites that explain the process (and use the correct words for all the steps) but I just wanted to let you guys know how easy it really is. 


This simple change totally updated the look of the room.  If you're interested, the above chandeliers are from the Hampton Bay Caffe Patina collection at The Home Depot

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