Broken Ceiling Fan Light Kit to Solar Chandelier

4 Materials
$5
30 Minutes
Easy

Our 20 year old ceiling fan broke and was being replaced. Being the crafting person I am, I couldn’t just throw the old fan with lights away. I wanted to salvage all the pieces I could for those future projects you read about on Hometalk.com. I took the whole thing apart and saved pretty much everything except the broken motor and the housing. Many of the parts will become wind chimes at a later date. The blades and glass light covers are headed to my local thrift store.

Here are many of the parts saved

After dismantling the fan and light fixture, I had a bunch of parts. The light fixture part was the one I decided to use for this up-cycle.

The chandelier like light part from fan

So here is what the light portion looked like after I cut the electrical wires. It looked like a mini chandelier. I didn’t like the way the middle looked so I twisted the arms with the light sockets around until they were completely on the opposite side.

I liked the middle part better this way

Once I had the “ chandelier” the way I liked it. I grabbed my trusty E6000 adhesive and some solar lights I got at Dollar Tree.

Applying E6000 to socket

The solar light stakes from Dollar Tree fit into the socket area really well if you glue the clear plastic part of the light into the socket area. By gluing the clear part of the solar stake into the old bulb socket, when the lights wear out, you can just unscrew the old solar tops and replace the them with new ones down the road.

Use the clear plastic part to glue in sockets

Once you glue the clear part in, you can add the light cap.

One light in

After all my solar lights were glued on, I used a macrame hanger I got at Dollar Tree to act as the holder of my faux chandelier. You can use anything you want for the hanging part. I was going to use chain but went with the macrame thing because it was handier.

Macrame plant hanger

I am showing a photo of it lit up in a dark room so you get an idea of how it would look outside at night.

Solar lights for ambiance

This project costs a little over $5 because I already had the light fixture part. You can pick up cheap chandeliers on line or at thrift stores. Since they don’t need to be working for solar lights, you can often find them for free in ads.

Mostly done
Update: painted with oil rubbed bronze

After having my little solar chandelier outside for awhile, I went ahead and painted it with oil rubbed bronze as I really didn’t like the bright gold. It goes way better with my patio furniture now. Thanks for stopping by.

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Frequently asked questions
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  2 questions
  • Sherry Sherry on Apr 08, 2021

    How pattern did u use to make the macrame holder for your chandelier?

  • Teresa Teresa on Apr 19, 2021

    Do you get enough sunlight to charge up the lights?

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