Last year Tom and I inherited some beautiful flagstone pieces from our next door neighbors. So began our “repurposed backyard project. In future posts, I’ll show you what we’ve done so far.

This year, we’re starting off (and I say that because I hope there are more projects to come!) with designing a chandelier for our outdoor dining tent. I’ve seen some cool repurposed fixtures on the web – mostly on Etsy. Tom had some old wagon wheel rims at the farm.  We’re starting with that.

The inspiration for the project

This will be the base for the lights, which will be made out of antique insulators. I guess Tom and his sisters collected them off of old telephone poles long ago. I’m sure they didn’t realize what a fabulous and valuable treasure they were gathering at the time!

I marked 8 places to drill holes in the rim.  We’ll be attaching the insulators here eventually. Take note of my super high tech measuring tool…a paper towel! Hey – you’ve gotta use what you’ve got at hand, and it was a lot easier than dealing with a big old tape measure. Next, Tom used the drill press and a diamond hole cutter to make a hole in the top of the insulator. And viola! A clean little hole to run the socket through!

We stopped for the day. Tomorrow is supposed to include a trip to the welding shop to talk about some other issues we might have. As long as I had my camera, I figured I might as well snap a couple of photos along the Greenway.

And then of course, one of my man…. he sure is a fun one!