Upcycling idea: bicycle rim as a modern chandelier

Upcycling is trendy: A bicycle rim as a modern chandelier is a great recycling idea and can be easily built yourself. We will show you how it works and how you can create an individual piece of jewelry with your own ideas.

Do you have an old bike whose best times are long gone? Before you finally bring this to the scrap iron, you can keep the rims and use them to build a curious-romantic light ring. Whether you prefer simple or colorful with lots of junk, the main thing is that you are creative. You can find out how it is done below.

What you need

• Bicycle rim from an old bike or from the hardware store (here: 22 inches)
• 4 x 50 centimeters metal chain
• 4 S-hooks
• Metal drill
• Lamp holder with cable
• Light bulb
• Paint spray
• 7 meters of aluminum wire (2-3 millimeters thick)
• 3 meters of silver wire (0.8 millimeters thick)
• Round and pliers
• Glass clinker to decorate
• 2 meters of fabric tape (2 centimeters wide)
• Glue gun
• 14 lantern glasses (diameter: 5 centimeters, height: about 7 centimeters)

Lanterns can be attached to the spokes with hot glue and spread a special flair when tea lights are placed in them.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

Step-by-step instructions

1. Prepare

First you have to free the rim from the hub and clean it. Then three holes are drilled in the edge with a metal drill so that the rim can be hung up later. To do this, attach the metal chains to the last link or S-hooks to the holes and let the chains run together at the top. The metal chains can be connected to the suspension chain with another S-hook.

Drill three holes in the rim and attach three metal chains to these holes so that you can hang the rim later.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

2. Painting

For painting, you should hang the rim outdoors and place a newspaper under it. Then the rim is sprayed on from all sides until it is completely covered with paint. Only when the paint has dried is the tire groove covered with fabric tape and the ends glued with hot glue.

It is best to paint the rim outside.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

3. Install

Now the lamp holder and cable are pushed from below through the former center of the wheel and the cable is fixed to the upper S-hook. Finally, the lamp is connected.

The lamp is now pushed with a cable through the former center of the wheel.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

4. Bend and decorate

You can let your creativity run wild when decorating. For our example, we used glass clunkers (available from Ikea, for example). To hang them up, you can snap off pieces of aluminum wire about 15 centimeters long and turn them into S-curlicues with the round nose pliers. Then attach the glass clinker to it and attach it to the rim.

The glass clunkers are attached to the rim with pieces of aluminum wire. To make it look particularly nice, simply twist the wire into S-flourishes.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

For the lanterns, bend a 40 cm long aluminum wire in the middle to the loop (1), then bend left and right around the glass bottom (2) and screw in the ends (3). Now about 50 centimeters long silver wire is bent around the top of the glass. Wrap around the curlicues and wrap the end of the wire. The rest of the wire is then bent up and twisted into a loop, the other end tied down (4).

The lanterns are also attached to the rim with wire. Silver wire is best suited for the loop.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

Once you have attached all the wires and decorated the rim with lanterns and clunkers, you can place jars with tea lights on top of the spokes. However, make sure that they are stable and cannot fall down. Then light the candles and admire the self-made chandelier.

Alternatives

Even a small chandelier can become an eye-catcher. Simply decorate with clunkers and pearls and the children's bike rim is barely recognizable.

Photo: Das Haus / Bine Brändle

The decorations mentioned are only suggestions. For example, you don't have to paint your rim if it already has a nice shade of gray. Of course you can also use a children's wheel rim if you have less space available. The small rims can be decorated in a similar way to the large ones, with colorful clunkers and beaded wire. Especially in the children's room, the homemade chandelier can offer some variety.