Faux Tassel Chandelier: A Renter-Friendly Decor Hack That Requires No Wires
Executive summary: A chandelier adds instant definition and personality to a space, IMO. I decided to make my own faux “chandelier” for our dining area, so I could get just what I wanted within the constraints of apartment living.
In my last post, I talked about swapping out the textile and “soft” decor in our home, a.k.a. the dust-catchers (here). But in the same breath, I admitted that I like the look and would keep them if cleaning were less of an issue. This is exactly how I feel about my faux tassel chandelier: I really like it, but am willfully ignoring how many (thankfully invisible) dust bunnies have taken up residence since I DIYed it 4+ years ago. It moved with us from coast to coast and has graced and defined our dining area in both homes. As a renter, I have to work with what I have, which forces me to get creative. I might not have the luxury (burden?) of choosing my own built-in light fixtures or their placement, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fake it with a faux chandelier that hangs just where I want it to, and with no need to get the landlord’s permission or call an electrician.
Our dining area looks that much more intentional and finished with the faux chandelier overhead.
It all started when I got tired of looking at the boob light in our last apartment. There were multiple offenders in that place, but the one in our eat-in kitchen was the most glaring (pun intended) — it was in the center of our downstairs space and visible from the moment we walked in the door. Not wanting to mess with the actual wires or replace the fixture, I tried to figure out a way to cover it up. I needed to hack something that could go flush against the ceiling, to encircle the unfortunate boob light and block out all sight of this eyesore above our heads. It would have to be tiered hoops, I decided, with something hanging from them. I played around with different ideas, from draping strands of wooden beads on the hoops (too heavy?) to making strings of fake capiz shells (too tedious) to tying on strips of colorful fabric (too shabby chic). I finally landed on yarn tassels as a middle ground: labor intensive but not too painful, relatively lightweight, and reasonably sophisticated (with a touch of boho, which I’m not opposed to).
I am not big into writing detailed process posts — to me, that feels like a chore rather than a hobby. But here’s the general gist of what I did:
Acquire metal hoops. I decided on 3 tiers, and gold (go glam or go home, baby!) I think the biggest hoop circumference is 18”, the middle one is 14”, and the smallest is 10”.
Acquire yarn (I chose white to be more versatile, but sometimes I wish I’d done a gradient of blues between tiers, for an ombré effect). Now make literally 100 tassels. Whichever way you decide to make the tassels, make sure you have a way of tying them onto the hoops.
Tie the tassels onto the hoops. For full coverage (no gaps between the tassels), I attached 43 to the 18” largest hoop, 34 to the 14” middle one, and 24 to the 10” smallest one. Ok, fine, I guess I made 101 tassels.
Now it’s time to connect the hoops together with the same yarn (so it’s camouflaged). My tassels were 7” long, and I wanted my tiers to overlap only a little, so I hung the hoops 5” apart using 3 strings of yarn between each level (like a tripod).
Hang the chandelier from the ceiling with tiny hooks (I used three). The key is to have the chandelier as flush with the ceiling as possible, to hide whatever may (or may not) be inside. It so happened that there were lights in both our apartments approximately where we wanted the chandelier to go, so the chandelier does actually “work” and gives off light at the flick of a switch.
You can see the approximate size of the tassels in this close-up, plus one of the tiny white ceiling hooks we used to hang it. In our current apartment, this “chandelier” only encircles a recessed light above our dining area, but in our last apartment, it did a marvelous job of hiding the dreaded boob light which protruded from the ceiling like a misplaced mammalian mishap.
(PS With Halloween on my mind, these tassels also remind me of small ghosts! Haha)
That’s the whole process! It’s more tedious than tricky, although it’s very helpful to have a pair of helping hands for steps 4-5. I’m not gonna lie: only do this if you have many hours to burn while making 100+ tassels. But I do enjoy the result, and get to look at my handiwork with pride every time we turn on the light. My biggest concern is how to keep it clean, as soft/fuzzy things love to collect dust. I could take the chandelier down once in a while and shake it out, but I’m afraid it might be too delicate to withstand such treatment. Plus, it’s a pain to get it on and off the ceiling hooks, so … it only gets jostled when we move. To be fully honest, I’m not sure if this chandelier will come to our next home with us — there are a couple of faculty housing options we’re considering, and I don’t think it would look right in there. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it, or that it wasn’t worth my time to create. Au contraire, I’ve been quite happy with it and am always thinking about what other straightforward but impactful DIYs I could undertake, especially as a renter. This project solved my conundrum of how to add more interest to our dining area when we have no control over the architecture or lighting (why, boob light, why??), and this solution fit my criteria of smart, simple, and stylish. I deem it a super success!