How to Make a Faux Chandelier for Your RV

I’ve been ogling a beautiful chandelier from another Airstream for months now. This week I finally decided to try and make one for Bridget. 

Figuring out what materials to use was first. I knew it had to be light weight. I ended up going to a craft store and walking up and down every aisle to see what was available. 

I finally settled on a picture frame made of wood to use as the base. I was able to find a gray frame so I didn’t have to paint it.

To wrap around the frame I found some fancy tin ribbon with filigree work which allowed me to attach the crystals. 

I used my hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the frame. I was careful to bend the corners around a sharp 90 degree angle using a rubber mallet so they would look tidy on the finished project.  

I was also very lucky because where my two ends overlapped at the end the holes lined up perfectly. You can see the seam above in the picture directly below the word seam. I didn’t do anything special at the seam other than make sure it was smooth because it planned to face it away from view.

I purchased some acrylic “crystals” at the craft store and had planned to attach them using jump rings but no matter how hard I tried to close them they kept falling off of the thin tin ribbon. 

Don’t use these

After some research I decided to use split rings to attach the crystals to the ribbon. 

Use these

I found different acrylic “crystals” on Amazon with split rings already attached. These work great! 

These are the crystals I used. I ordered the 38 mm size. I attached one in each hole conveniently provided by the tin ribbon manufacturer.

That’s it! I was really very simple. I hung it using Command Wall Hanging Strips. I used 6 sets of the large strips because it’s hanging upside down and I wanted to be safe. I moved about 100 miles today and it stayed put.

This shows one of the command strips attached to the top of the chandelier and to the bottom of the cabinet. The best advise I can give you is to clean the surface where you want to place the command strip with an alcohol wipe and dry it thoroughly.

This is a before shot of the existing light fixture. 

This is the finished product. Murphy approved!