Faux Candles Ghost Tray UPCYCLE

Creepy times, my dear strangers! The minute I saw this discarded ceiling light, I saw a Halloween Faux Candle Tray with ghosts flying around it. Am I crazy? Could I have left it in the dump? So there goes my next TRASHURE PICKER episode. The real dumpster “junk” revived. But I couldn’t let the electric wiring pass by, so I made hot glue faux candles with little light bulbs.

I found this dirty, broken ceiling light that once had crystal glass pendants hanging on it. And I thought what a perfect Halloween project!

Cleaning

The first thing I did was cut my hands on the metal edges. So, I started by cleaning all the sharp edges with a fine metal file before continuing any further. I guess nobody bothered with proper finishing since it was supposed to be an out-of-reach ceiling light?

After making the light fixture safe to handle, I removed all the leftover and broken little lightbulbs. Then I vacuumed all the loose debris and metal shavings and used warm, soapy water and a microfiber cloth to carefully clean everything.

New Base

Because it used to be a ceiling light, I needed to find a way to hide the electrical guts safely somewhere. After discarding the plywood idea because of the fire hazard, I was suggested to use some plastic instead. And was amazed to find a plant saucer of exactly the right size in an improvemet store! Can you believe it? A perfect fit.

I used the light mounting system to attach it neatly to the saucer.

Rewiring & Electric Inspection

The electric current is 240 V here, and it is not really safe to play with, especially when the whole light fixture is made of metal, so I asked my electrician friend to check and fix the wiring professionally for me. I brought all my spare parts to his shop and gave him a hand and instructions on how I’d like it to work.

We eliminated the computer chip because the remote control evidently didn’t survive the dump and rewired it through the new little switch to a new grounded plug through a perfect heavy-duty cable bushing. Wow, it looks better than new!!

Making Faux Candles with Hot Glue

With all the technical issues solved, and the light bulbs being discussed later on, it is time to start modifying to achieve a candle tray look. I finally found a use for those salvaged leftover plastic water pipes that might be useful one day! I hand-cut short tubes, slightly longer than the light posts to accommodate longer light bulbs, intentionally making the tops and bottoms angled so the candles would look more realistic, and cleaned the rough edges with sandpaper.

I used the hot glue technique to make the drippy faux candles. But beware it is quite heavy on glue sticks. I used about 6″ of a 1/4″ thick glue stick per candle but if you want more drips it can be a lot more.

I wiped the pipes with the rubbing alcohol and started applying the glue from the bottom up to form drips. This part is all up to your personal preference on how you want your candles to look. Ad more or less glue, layer it or not, run it all the way to the base or just around the upper part. Finally, I am finishing the top edge with more glue and using a heat tool to blend the rugged edge nicely. Be careful to not overheat it.

Note: that every brand of glue sticks behaves a bit differently because there are no standards for hot glue! It is just whatever type of plastic that melts at a certain temperature! Some glue sticks do not glue at all, some harden hard some rubbery, some can be painted some CANNOT! You better test them before your intended project. Unlike me.

Painting the Faux Candles

I knew I was in trouble when my bonding primer beaded all over the glue stick drips. I tried all kinds of different paints and primers I had, including a synthetic spray-on primer for plastics, which didn’t bead but didn’t stick either.

So, in the end, I had to paint just the candles around the drips using Annie Sloan Original white chalk paint.

Instead of using blood-red acrylic paint over the repellent drips, I got an ingenious idea to try my red nail polish. It stuck perfectly! It is partially translucent and has a rich, glossy color. The only tricky part was applying it just over the drips. But I did some touchups with the chalk paint later.

I also painted the insides of my pipe candles with black chalk paint to visually finish the top ends.

The next day, when the nail polish was completely cured, I clear-coated the chalk-painted parts with mat varnish to get a silkier look.

And after the varnish was dry, I applied a bit of dark umbra antiquing wax around the drips to give them some dimension and age. Using the wax over the varnish makes it easy to wipe off any excess. I also aged the bottom edge of the candles lightly.

And they were finely, after too much unexpected trouble, ready to be installed.

Painting the Tray

Before playing with the candles, I gave the light/tray a first black chalk paint coat because the original chrome was too reflective and quite blinding when the lights were lit.

I wasn’t sure how the paint would stick to the shiny chrome, but it stuck surprisingly well. Though it needed two coats. I was going to use white wax over it to get some texture in the brush strokes, but it didn’t really work the way I liked, so I just used the clear wax at the end.

Finally, I painted the ghosts around the tray with white chalk paint from outside to break down the reflectiveness. Dabbing the paint more around the edges than in the middle.

To attach the candles, I am using my One-For-All glue in small amounts while installing the new LED bulbs simultaneously.

Light Bulbs

Originally, there were 10 and 20 W halogen lightbulbs installed, but there are 13 of them… What a beautiful number. But that would mean between 130 and 260 watts of power! That seems a bit EXCESSIVE!  So, I decided to try the glorified LED lights. I ordered a box of 1,5W and 2W LED G4 light bulbs, which multiplied by 13, are only slightly over 20W total. Except for the consumption, they have about the same specs and almost the same luminosity! Now how the “beep” are they both in the G energy category?!? 

The LED lights are a bit longer than halogen lights because of the electronic components. That’s why I made the candle tubes slightly longer. I like the 1.5W better because the shape reminds me of a little flame. And they fit perfectly. The 2W bulbs are a bit too chunky for my taste, so I might exchange them for the thinner ones, later.

Faux Candles Tray Decorating

And now, the most fun part! Decorating! But not to stretch this episode much longer, I used the faux cobwebs and spiders I already had in my decorating supplies. I can also imagine adding some dirt or dust over the tray to make it look old and grungy. Maybe even some bones, beatles, or black twigs. There are endless ways to arrange this tray, and I so look forward to decorating it differently every year!

And just imagine having it mounted back on the ceiling like this! Fun :)!

I hope you have enjoyed this makeover as much as I did and got inspired to flip some seemingly useless thing of your own. If you haven’t yet, please like, comment, and subscribe to my channel and I hope to see you next time!

For visual guidance watch the detailed video on my YouTube channel …

If you’d like me to have better mornings, please Buy Me a Coffee.

Or if you like what I do and would like to support me, please become my Patron.

---

More Halloween Projects