Gayus Wood

How to install a drum shade over a chandelier

Today I thought I would share with you how we made the drum shade chandelier. We started with a massive chandelier with a glass shade. One advantage of a HUGE light fixture is that there are lots of parts! We were able to get everything (but one little part) out of the this fixture - hooray for not having to buy extra parts!

Below I drew a section (drawing cutting through the fixture) to explain how we put it together.



Heres how we did it:

1. The piece that covers the electrical housing was taken from the top of the chandelier (ours was just big enough to cover the hole)

2. The long rod with treaded ends was the main brass tube that the chandelier hung from. It was simply screwed into the existing housing at the top. This piece was about 8" long.

3. A lampshade with a spider/harp fitting was held in place

4. and a small threaded rod connector (~.5") was screwed into place holding the lampshade. I purchased a threaded rod kit from Home Depot for the folded rope dome light and had this piece left over ...

5. A shorter rod with threaded ends was taken from the top of the fixture (inside the top rounded piece to connect the chandelier to the very top of the fixture) This piece was about 5"

We then installed it in the existing electrical housing. It was a little awkward to install, so I held it in place while David connected all of the wires.

and thats it! a definite upgrade!