Prettying up the ceiling fan

Helloooooo all! Hope you had a great weekend!

A couple weeks ago I did a little project that only took about five minutes and buck to complete. So of course I had to show you. :)

It all started last month when I finally addressed the massive pile of magazines I’ve been avoiding for months (years?) now.

I saw an idea in one of my old BHG mags and then did a little researching online to see if I could figure out how to do it myself. I didn’t find the how-to, but I did find another inspiration picture:

We have a ceiling fan in our family room and even though I’d prefer something prettier, it’s staying. It’s necessary for the times the oven starts smoking in the kitchen, the smoke alarm is going off, and opening the windows and flapping the kitchen towel just isn’t cutting it. :)

The person that creates the smoke may or may not be me.

I will never tell.  :)

The fan is darker brown, which I do like. It has three lights as you can see here:

It’s not bad. Nothing awful. I was just inspired by the photos I found and wanted to try something different.

I decided I was going to do my best to use what I had on hand to change it up.

I started by taking off the glass covers – you just squeeze the metal pieces inside and pull the glass off:

Next up – to figure out how to get my lamp shade to stay on the fan. I had large Goodwill drum shade I planned to use and it was the type with the wire circle at the top of the shade – the kind you have to use with harp. (More on that in a bit!)

So I stood under the fan for about ten minutes, thinkin’ and a thinkin’. I noticed there was a little jobby on the bottom where the pull chain came out. It matched the one on the side:

Because I’ve changed out a meeellion lights in this house, I have plenty of electrical parts laying around. I dug through my stash and found this threaded connector:

The real name of this piece will create some major spam and unwelcome searches if I use it, so for now it’s called a “threaded connector.” ;)

Anyhoo, I knew if I could get it connected to the fan, I could figure this out:

I looked and looked and LOOKED and tried every little trinket I had in my tool box, and nothing worked. Drats.

I was so determined at this point, I was off to the hardware store. :) I looked around for awhile, but couldn’t find the exact piece I needed.  Lowe’s Guy and I both spent a good ten minutes looking through the drawers of nuts and connectors, and still couldn’t find anything that worked. And then Lowe’s Guy No. 2 came up to help and suggested I look in…wait for it…the ceiling fan area.

Now, who would have thunk it? :) Bahhhrilliant.

There I found exactly what I was looking for:

Two of these little connectors came in a package for about $1.50. Not bad.

I threaded the connector to the fan, put the longer connector into that one, and then put the hole of the lamp shade over the long piece:

I secured the shade up there with a small nut (picture on the right). It worked perfectly!

The original lamp shade I tried was way too big though, so I took another off a lamp and used that instead (a lovely from Pottery Barn I got with a gift card last year):

Love, love, LOVE.

There’s a few things to consider if you want to try this out – first of which is your ceiling height. The shade hangs lower than the glass shades did, by about five inches I'm guessing? Our ceilings are nine feet, so we still have plenty of clearance. (I’m 5’9”, hubby is 5’11”.)

Something else to consider is your lamp shade. My shade was the type that fits on the lamp with a harp – it’s called a spider fitting:

If you have an uno style shade, or the type that fits right over the lamp socket, you’ll have to use a different method:

I’m sure there’s a way to wire that type of shade up there. But if you are thinking about trying this out, I’d suggest using one with the spider fitting, just because it’s SO easy.

If the bare bulbs showing from underneath the fan are going to bother you, this isn’t for you. That doesn’t bug me one bit, since you only see the light bulbs if you’re right under it:

Honestly, you see less of the bulbs this way than with the original glass shades.

One more thing to consider is the size of your shade. The light bulbs need to be two to three inches from the shade, for safety reasons:

But that also depends on the wattage of your bulbs – ours are 60 watt and we have a dimmer on this light. (And even though our shade is large enough, I had the light on full force for hours the first day, feeling to see how warm the shade was every ten minutes or so.)

It was fine. But I’m a freak like that.  :)

It’s odd – it’s makes more of a statement than the glass shades, but I find I notice it less. Maybe it’s because those covers were never my cup of tea. Or it could be because I’m obsessed with drum shades (especially those trimmed out with lovely jute trim).

I don’t know what it is, but I love how it turned out. Especially because it only cost $1.50:

If you don’t have a drum shade, check out Lowe’s! They have a great selection. I always find great options at HomeGoods too, usually for less than $15.

Oh, and it holds up great when the fan is running too. Our fan doesn’t shake much anyway, but it’s totally secure.

So have you doctored up a ceiling fan? With spray paint? New shades? Some bling? :) Have you tried this project? Do share!

Oh, and by the way -- this version:

Is $540. :) Rock. on!!