RePurposed Farmhouse Style Planter Chandelier

I was scanning the web and saw this beautiful light fixture that was a planter built into an old wood beam for a wedding decoration. I fell in love with it.  And of course I thought…I want a planter chandelier in my home!

So, first I searched for one I could purchase.  But, as usual, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.  Story of my life!  So, what do you I when that happens?  Make it of course!  🙂

Read on to learn how I made a planter chandelier with my lighting contractor.

Photo from IDLights.com

Shop for the planter box, florals, and lighting fixture for the planter chandelier

I visited many lighting stores looking for the actual light fixture I wanted to use to make the planter box chandelier.  I finally settled on the first one I found at Lowe’s.  That always happens to me. 🙂

I needed a fixture that had a flat base that I could attach to the ceiling otherwise I would have just picked out individual pendants.  Or I could have made the base myself but didn’t want to get into all that for this project.

Either way I have low ceilings so couldn’t do the plant effect above the base of the light so that limited my choices.

The next task for making my planter chandelier was to search for something I could use to mimic the look of the beam.  I ended up using a wooden basket that has rope handles that I purchased at Michael’s.  I couldn’t find a picture of the exact one I used but you could use anything similar to the image below.  This one is from Amazon but I would also look at Michael’s and Hobby Lobby.

Keep in mind that you will need to find a basket that is in proportion to your island or whatever you are hanging it over.  I usually will measure the island and make the light to take up about 2/3 of that space.  This is just approximate.

For a related project with florals check out my post  DIY Floral Chandelier

Next, I purchased a bunch of artificial plant stems from Hobby Lobby. I used some trailing fern type plants, ivy and queen Anne’s lace.  But you can use whatever you want to make it your own.

Assembling the planter chandelier

Step 1 Prepare the planter box

The first step was to drill holes in the bottom of the planter.  To make sure the holes lined up with the hanging lights we used the exposed piece of the ceiling plate to mark the holes in the planter.

The ceiling plate is two pieces.  One attached to the ceiling (you won’t see this piece) and the other is a finished piece that attaches to that plate and faces down into the room.  This is the one we used to line up the holes.

Step 2 String and secure the wires to the planter box

Next we strung the wires through the holes in the basket and through the finish plate and decided how long we wanted the lights to hang.  I like them being random heights so I picked the lowest hanging light and the highest hanging light and made the rest random heights in between.

We secured the wires to the planter bottom with rubber stoppers that fit into the holes. Then used black duct tape around the wires under the stopper to secure it so it wouldn’t slip out of the holes.

Then we attached the wires to the ceiling plate with the supplied locking nuts.

Hold the fixture up by the ceiling plate to make sure everything is hanging where you want it and that the basket is also hanging straight.  Make any adjustments you need now.