Ethan Allen Chandelier Knock Off Challenge

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I joined a group of bloggers for a Knock Off Challenge, hosted by Decorate and More with Tip. Thank you so much, Terrie for inviting me to join this group! If you are here from Cloches and Lavender then Welcome!

At the end of my post you will find the rest of the links to all of these amazing Knock Off Home Decor Pieces!

I have never done one of these before…. A Knock Off Challenge is where you choose an expensive item from a fancy, high class store– then you make an inexpensive imitation. Now if you’ve read my blog for any length of time you know that my favorite words are “free” and “yard sale.” So I wasn’t sure what I would be able to find, that I could copy inexpensively.

But I think I found a winner!!! I walked into my local Ethan Allen furniture store at the beginning of March– just a few days before everyone in the world got sent to their rooms. Well, you know what I mean. So I was short on time in more ways than one. And guess what I found? I found this gorgeous Ethan Allen Orb Chandelier. Isn’t it fabulous?!

Orb Chandelier from Ethan Allen

Now I live in a home that could almost be classified as a tiny home, with 7 foot, 7 inch ceilings. What could I do? Make a miniature version?

No– I thought of something else. I had a friend. And my friend had an orbital chandelier in her dining room. So within minutes of taking these pictures I texted my friend and asked if I could temporarily alter her chandelier. Being the good friend that she is– she said yes!

By the way– have you been wondering what that price tag says on this Ethan Allen Orb Chandelier?……

Here is a closeup.

Yes. one-thousand-four-hundred-dollars. On sale now for just a little over $1,000. And I just said my favorite words are “free” and “yard sale.” Can you see me over here laughing hysterically?! Are you ready to see how to make one of your own for around a tenth of the sale price?!

Knock-Off Chandelier

Let me introduce you to the orbital chandelier that is going to turn into a copy of the Ethan Allen chandelier. This chandelier has a different finish, and 6 arms or spindles (orbs?) instead of four. You can find this exact chandelier at Overstock.com You can also purchase a very similar, although smaller one at this link for less than $100. One more great choice is HERE.

Knock-Off Chandelier, Before

The wood is dark in the above picture, and that is about the true color of the wood. (The following pictures will show a lighter color of wood, in order to get a brighter image.)

Wrap It

I thought that I would simply wrap the “borrowed” chandelier with some rope, maybe jute from the Dollar Tree. But when I looked at the jute, I knew it was not a good match for the high end chandelier. The color was wrong, and the jute was sort of stringy, and fraying. I looked closely at my images of the original, and saw that the rope was two twisted strands, and of very good quality (no wonder it is priced so high!).

I only planned to spend a few dollars. I couldn’t choose a rope online and hope that when it arrived it would be the right match of size, color, and texture. And then…. A.C. Moore was having going out of business sales. So I looked in the craft section for….. yarn. And I found a perfect match.

My “rope” didn’t have to actually be rope. It didn’t even need 2 strands. It just needed to look like it had 2 strands twisted together. I did wonder if it would fray, or get fuzzy, but I didn’t have any other better ideas. I decided to bring along some hairspray in case I needed to put some on my hands and pat down any fuzzies. (If you want to purchase this yarn, you can find it right here!)

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https://www.pinterest.com/pin/94153448449030272/

Before I arrived, my friend Kara had already started wrapping the chandelier with some of the yarn I had given her. This is what it looked like:

The yarn wrapped spindle was very fuzzy, and looked nothing like what I had envisioned!!

But I decided to go ahead with my plan. I stood on a chair and started to wrap the spindle from the top. Very carefully and gently I wrapped the yarn around the orb. Before long I had a spindle that looked like this!

I had hope that maybe this project would actually turn out like I had planned! I wrapped another spindle from top to bottom. The partially wrapped spindle in the picture below is the one my friend had done. She had started at the bottom, and worked toward the top.

It took about two and a half hours to finish wrapping all six half circles. I used less than half of one skein of yarn in all! And I didn’t even end up using any hair spray.

So what do you think? Success??

Here is a view from the bottom of the chandelier.

And here is a closeup from the bottom.

Knock-Off Chandelier, AFTER!!

Of course, if this were a real life knock-it-off challenge for a tv show (because tv shows are real life, right?!) then I could have spray painted the metal pieces to the correct finish before wrapping the spindles.

Whether close up or from a distance, I think this Orb Chandelier is a great imitation. Do you agree? Let me know your opinion in the comments below!

And then we remembered to turn the lights on!

To see a video explaining how I wrapped the spindles, Click Here.

Next up in the group is CD’s Country Living who has another Knock Off Challenge to show you! Click on the Pictures below to be taken to each project.

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