Nothing Wasted - 1 Outdated Ceiling Fan 2 Projects

Marie
by Marie
8 Materials
$16
3 Days
Medium
My husband has been changing out the ceiling fans in our home. He is replacing the outdated fans with flush mount remote controlled fans. I am right behind him, saying I want this and I'm sure I can use that. I collected the ceiling mounts and the blades.

I once told him to keep an eye out for an old high back chair. I originally had the chair in mind for another project. He found one a few weeks later. After looking at the back of the chair I decided that it wasn't right for what I had in mind. But I told him to hold onto it. It may work for something else, perhaps another foot rest.

A few weeks later while cleaning out the shed my husband asked me if I still wanted the fan blades. It hit me. A side table!
I only worked on this a few hours over 3 weekends. So I really don't know how long it actually took.


I don't have a picture of the original chair before we took the cushion off and my husband used his sawzall and cut off the back. it. It was really rough looking. He knew enough not to throw away the remaining pieces. Nothing goes to waste. I am not sure what I will use them for as of yet. One day I will be looking for a chair back or a seat I am sure. I sanded the base of the chair down and then needed to glue the legs in a few places to make it more sturdy.


While waiting for the glue to dry on the table base I glued the fan blades together with the narrow end being glued to the wide end.


With nothing more to do on the table while the glue dried I turned to the fan ceiling mount which I had determined was going to be a shelf for my bathroom vanity.



I got out the spray paint and while I was painting had my husband cut a circle of thin wood which will be laid about half way up the mount. I used contact paper to cover the wood.
After the paint dried I inserted 4 screws, washers, and nuts into the (what I will refer to as) keyholes on each side of the mount under the lip of the mount and laid the shelf on top of the screws. After the second coat of paint dried my shelf was finished.
After another sanding to take off the excess glue I spray painted the table base.
Using some left over paint I had lying around I used a foam roller for the table top. I thought about filling in the holes but than decided not to. I didn't want to hide the fact that they are fan blades.


After the paint dried I decided I wanted to stencil the top. I had seen very pretty results some Hometalker's had using lace as the stencil. I used a polyester roller over the lace that i had down. After carefully removing the lace my results were blotches of paint, no pattern. It was a disaster. I waited for the blotches to dry so I could sand them off. I repainted the table top and waited.


I made another attempt this time using a thin foam roller. I got the same disastrous results, paint blotches, no pattern. I waited for the blotches to dry so I could sand them off again. I repainted the table top again and waited. This was the last of the paint, I decided I would use a real stencil.


Working with the real stencil worked thank goodness because this was the last of the stencil paint as well. If anyone can think of a reason that the lace didn't work out for me I am open for suggestions.


I used Minwax Paste Finishing Wax on the chair and table to give them some luster and a little protection.



I glued the table top to the chair. Because the chair leaned backwards I needed to glue some shims between the chair and the table. I let the glue dry overnight.
This was the lamp I had in mind when I was creating the table. It's a perfect match!


I had an afterthought. I think I should have painted the feet black. By that time I was not willing to sand off the wax. Perhaps sometime in the future I will.


This is just one thing we can do with an old ceiling fan. What else can you think of? I have enough blades for at least three more tables.
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  • Reenaroc Reenaroc on Mar 24, 2018

    You asked about the lace not working. I'm just guessing that the fabric soaked up too much of the paint. Probably would need the fabric to be very, very tight and use a stencil brush w/ a tiny, tiny bit of paint at a time. would be easier to tell what went wrong if I could see the lace, again just guessing. Love the table!!

  • Marie Marie on Mar 26, 2018

    Thanks Reenaroc, I've already thrown away the fabric. Perhaps the lace wasn't tight enough. My mom said the same things about a stencil brush. I will make another attempt at this perhaps I will practice first rather than try it on an ongoing project.

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