Make Wooden beads

Lighting projects can instantly up the style and feel of a space. Oftentimes it gives the space the extra detail it needs to put it over the top! We were dying to make a wooden bead chandelier, and we love how it all came together. The raw wood beads are my favorite! I love the organic feel of them.

Supplies:
-1 hanging basket
-white spray paint
-scissors
-approximately 700 5/8" wood beads
-approximately 130 1/2" wood beads
-white cotton string
-hack saw or Dremel tool (optional)

Start by stringing one small (1/2") bead on about 12-18" of string. We tied the small bead to one end of the string and then added eight of the larger (5/8") beads to make one strand of beads. Set aside and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Spray paint your basket any color you choose. Once you have several dozen strands made and your basket is completely dry, you will begin attaching the strands to your basket using a double (or triple!) knot. Trim excess string with scissors.

We used about 85 strands of beads. This is when a Netflix binge is totally acceptable. Oh, FYI: when we had 80 something strands tied, we decided we didn't want our chandelier to be 4 tiers and quite as big, so we removed the top chains, removed the top tier of the basket with a hack saw and reattached the chains. This is totally optional, and if you want an even larger chandelier, by all means keep the top tier. You will need more wood beads if you choose to keep the top tier.

This project is super simple but pretty time consuming. It took two full evenings of making the strands. I love it as an accent piece, but it would also be easy and functional to add a plugin light to it. We absolutely love how it turned out and now we want to add wooden beads to everything! Aren't they so fun? -Mallory & Savannah

Credits//Author and Photography: Mallory and Savannah. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.

Supplies:
-1 hanging basket
-white spray paint
-scissors
-approximately 700 5/8" wood beads
-approximately 130 1/2" wood beads
-white cotton string
-hack saw or Dremel tool (optional)