DIY Repurposed Candlesticks with Sheet Metal Shades

Repurpose old table legs into DIY candlholders. Finish them off with upcycled sheet metal shades.

There’s nothing better than taking something that was cluttering up the garage and transforming it into something beautiful! If you’ve got some old furniture laying around, you may start eyeing the legs after today’s repurposed, upcycled project. Your garage will be a little less cluttered, and you’ll have some adorable, unique candleholders to decorate with! Hope these DIY Repurposed Candlesticks with Sheet Metal Shades will fill your mantel next!

Today I’m joining a brand new group of do-it-yourself bloggers that love to create with thrifty finds. Thanks to Julie at Redhead Can Decorate for inviting me to be on the team and for organizing this bunch! This month 14 ladies are creating with a Christmas theme; I’ll have all their posts at the end.

If it’s your first time here, I should let you know I’m a vintage junker to the core. Each spring I go curbside junking for several days and find most of the “potential” for my projects {“Curbside Vintage Junking, Best Ever”}. I’ve been doing this for…a long time;) I was a dealer for many years at different vintage shops and owned my own for 6 years. It was a blast. But now I’m happy to keep hunting down vintage treasures I can repurpose and not have to sell all the good stuff! It’s fun to finally be able to decorate my own home with my creations and inspire all of you, too!

On to my 1st Thrifty Style Team project!

DIY Repurposed Candlesticks with Sheet Metal Shades

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This project started with the boys I share the garage and shop with requesting me to “go through the spindles”. Really? Does the picture above look like I need to edit my hoard  stock of furniture legs? They come in handy for so many things! But Mr. Fix-it was excited to have his garage a little cleaner, so I dug through all the “potential” and gave them some fire starter material.

Then I picked the furniture legs I was most excited to repurpose into candle holders.

First, Cut the Furniture Legs Into Candlestick Lengths

Cut your furniture legs into candlestick lengths. We cut most of our table legs in half. We also gave the rough ends a clean cut. It’s more interesting to upcycle these in a different way than they were normally used. So most of the table legs should be turned upside down; it’s just more fun.

Sand rough edges when done.

Put Bases on Wobbly Legs

Some of the pieces may need a larger base to stabilize. We screwed a simple square of cedar onto the bases of some of the more lightweight and skinny legs. If you’re going to have a burning candle in these, you don’t want them tipping over.

Next, Drill Holes for Different Sized Candles

I bought a group of various white candles for this project. I decided which candles I wanted in which leg and drilled holes accordingly. Pillar candles would sit on the larger diameter legs, tapers would marry up with some legs, and votives would tuck in the rest.

Make Sheet Metal Shades

Another “extra” item in the garage was a stack of sheet metal pieces, left over from placing it in frames {” Sheet Metal Frame “}. To add a little sparkle and some interesting lighting effects to my candlestick grouping, I wanted to create simple shades to go around some of the candles.

Cut the sheet metal height about an inch above the top of the candle. Then use a cylinder to wrap a length around. A spray paint can worked well. Use a tin snips to cut the length you need with a slight  overlap, matching up the pattern.

Hold the shade in place with vice grips at both ends. Drill small holes and close with pop rivets. (This was my first time using a pop rivet gun, and it was kind of fun;)

Finish the DIY Candlesticks with Paint and Poly

Time to really turn these old legs into something beautiful! Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments were my inspiration for painting these candlesticks, because I’ll be displaying them on the mantel for Christmas. I pulled out my stock of my favorite Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint (get it HERE) and chose these colors:

Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint provided me with some complimentary paints for this project. All opinions about their products are my own.

Find Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paints HERE. (Use code 10OFFLB for discount)

MMS paint is a powdered paint that you add water to mix. It’s totally different than any other paint I’ve ever used. I love that it’s thin and allows the vintage beauty and character of a piece to shine through. It’s a chalky finish and needs to be lightly sanded and sealed to finish.

I also added handpainted details, similar to the patterns on the Shiny Brite ornaments. Just simple leaves, flowers, lines and X’s. Nothing too hard. It just gave these repurposed candle holders folkish charm.

To finish their beauty treatment, I lightly sanded and distressed with 120 grit sandpaper and sealed with Miss Mustard Seed Hemp Oil (get it HERE). The hemp oil moisturizes the wood and gives an old world style finish. It deepens the paint color and brings out the beauty of the wood showing through.

The legs that already had great vintage chippiness got a brushed on coat of my favorite polyurethane to seal and bring out the color.

Decorate with Your Beautiful DIY Repurposed Candlesticks

Ready for the big reveal? I marched them across the mantel and lit the candles, sliding the sheet metal shades around. So much prettier than their previous life in the garage! Thrifty makeover, indeed! (Actually trash to treasure;)

I’ve had this project in my mind for a long time; I’m so glad this Thrifty Style Team challenge inspired me to finally get them done!

Shop the Products to Make:

Miss Mustard Seeds Milk Paints (Use code 10OFFLB for discount)

Miss Mustard Seed Hemp Oil (Use code 10OFF for discount)

 Rivet Gun

Decorative Sheet Metal

Polyurethane

The boys got the garage looking a little better and I got some beautiful “new” candlesticks to decorate with for Christmas. Win/win for this Thrifty Style Team makeover!

I hope you enjoyed my DIY Repurposed Candlesticks with Sheet Metal Shades!

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