Pillar Candle Holder and Finial Makeover
Finally the days are getting warmer and longer! I can’t help feeling all giddy inside, because “Spring is here” translates to four things in my vocabulary: more outdoors, more tag sales, more shopping and more goodies at Put&Take. While I am all hyped up and happy, Greg’s take on it is more like: driving thousands of miles between tag sales, Hobby Lobby, HomeDepot, Lowes, local nurseries and home, and as a result of her crazy shopping spree having a ‘honey do’ list as long as a roll of toilet paper.
Though you would think he was getting ready for the Facial Gymnastic Olympics (raised eyebrows, rolling eyes, pouting lips, annoyed squint, etc), last weekend wasn’t bad for the first shopping spree of the season. I only spent a total of $6 on this pillar candle holder and the bird finial which I found in Hobby Lobby’s discounted items aisle.
Not bad, eh? With a little bit of paint and a mending of the broken part, both will look great.
As usual, I started off with the mending. I thought of filling it first but since the candle holder was made from hollow ceramic, that would require a ton of filler just to get to the level of the broken part. Besides it would make this candle holder heavier. Instead, I came up with one of my weird fixes. First I twisted some paper to make it stronger yet still pliable.
Then I poured a bit of hot glue into the hollow from the hole of the broken part. The plan was to have something sticky at the bottom of the hollow ceramic.
Right after pouring the hot glue, I started pushing the twisted paper in. Once it reached the bottom, I waited a little so the hot glue would dry totally and adhere to the paper.
Now that the paper was stuck to the bottom, I pushed a bit more paper in until it reached up to the level of the broken area. Then using a tiny bit of hot glue, I glued the top part the paper to the circumference of the broken area. By doing so, I had only a little bit of area to fill with my “go-to” filler, DecoArt Dimensional Effects. Besides, as I used only a bit of hot glue and paper (which are both light materials), I didn’t change the center of balance of the candle holder.
Next, using DecoArt Dimensional Effects, I filled the final little gap to have a nice continuous surface then waited for it to dry and cure.
As my quick fix was complete, both items were ready for paint. I gave them 2 coats of my homemade chalk paint in custom matched Old White color.
After giving enough time for the paint to dry, I started antiquing them with Americana Decor Antiquing Wax. I will soon prepare a tutorial for decorative painting and using antiquing wax, however, for now my White Horse post has a good amount of pictures and information on that subject. So if you need to learn more about the application of antiquing wax, you may want to check the White Horse post.
If you’ve been following us,  you may know that I am not a big fan of gold color, so I never use it on its own. However, I do like it as an accent to certain colors on certain decor items, and this candle holder and the finial fall into those type of decor items. Therefore, after I finished antiquing, I decided to apply some Rub’n Buff in Autumn Gold, which has a copper tone to it.
Here are my updated pillar candle holder and finial.
They don’t look like $3 each, do they?
Some close-up pictures for you.
I really love how the copper-ish gold accents the antiqued off-white. I think these two colors really complement each other, especially on the reliefs.
As if it never had a broken part.
I hope you liked this candle holder and finial update.
Handan, xo
excellent job as usual they are awesome xx
Thank you so much, Chris! You made my day with your kind words. xx
You did a fantastic job! They turned out beautiful. What a talented, creative person you are! Thank you for sharing them with us.
Thank you so much, Teresa! =)
Handan, you made me laugh so hard with the first picture!! That’s why I decided to go “shopping” on my own, no pressure!!
You did a wonderful job with your finds, and the price you got was great! Thank you so much for sharing it with us at Two Uses Tuesday, happy Sunday!
lol. Poor Greg has to put up with that all the time as I don’t drive in USA. I have 3 different countries drivers licenses, but non of them are valid here. So until I get my USA drivers license he will be the one who is driving me to all those tag sales and craft stores =)
Beautiful! I love the finish on these.
Thank you so much, Tina! đŸ™‚
Handan I love the depth that you have created here using the glaze. And with the rub n buff the details are highlighted. Oh how I miss the tag sales and thrift stores. I don’t know about you and what it was like in Turkey but here in Greece we have none of that and I am always complaining. What do people do with their unwanted junk anyway? When I come to the States, I make sure to go thrifting to all the neighborhood sales. As you know, there are hidden treasures to be found. Thanks for sharing two of those with us at Sweet Inspiration.
Thank you so much, Mary! Oh yes, the tag sales what I also love about here. In Turkey we don’t have them either. But I think it has to do with the culture. In Turkey (before I left the country) not many people were into DiY/repurposing, and therefore the teachings were always to give away your old things to those who would need. I remember every time we moved to a new apartment my mom used gather a truck full of furniture and bits&bobs she wouldn’t use/need and take it to the suburbs of the city where less fortunate people would live or to university students who couldn’t afford to buy new furniture. So in a way nothing was ever getting thrown away, but just being handed over again and again… Only if something is broken, then it would end up in a landfill. Only nowadays people/organizations started having flea markets in Turkey, but only in the big cities…not everywhere. I guess it is because at least some started picking interest in DiY/repurposing.
You are truly talented! These are so beautiful and I love the fact that you only spent $6 on them! Crazy! Thanks for sharing at #FFBH đŸ™‚
Thank you so much, Jazelle! Isn’t it amazing what you can find in those discount aisles? đŸ˜‰
Hats off to you for being so creative and I love the transformation!
Thank you so much, Sandra! đŸ™‚
WOW these turned out amazing! Love them!
Thank you so much, Sam!
Great deals Handan, and they look fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful makeovers at Vintage Charm.
Thank you so much, Tuula! đŸ™‚
I love your detailed instructions – Thanks for sharing on the DIY Party!
Thank you so much, Helen! đŸ™‚
That’s wonderful! You did a great job.
Thank you so much, Lisa!
I absolutely love how you fixed this using something as common as twisted up paper and made it turn out so beautiful. Who knew?
Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us at the Monday Mish Mash Link Party!
*Hugs*
Thank you so much, Amy! xx
This turned out so beautiful! I love to hit up the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby too! Also, love the ingenuity behind your candle holder fix. Great work! Started following you for inspiration! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much, Stephanie! Oh you would love Hobby Lobby’s discount aisle. I recently found a super cute table lamp there (for $3.49) and turned that into a wreath stand đŸ˜‰
Great finds and a great fix! I picked up a ceramic elephant that needs a small fix and I think this will do the trick. Thank you for sharing at Link It Up Wednesday!
Thank you so much, Kileen! After writing this post I discovered Apoxie Sculpt and I am loving it. You might want to give that a try for fixes similar to this. đŸ˜‰
I’m going to remember your filler fix, but I have also had good luck with paper clay just repairing such a hole and not worrying about filling at all.
Thank you so much! After writing this post I discovered Apoxie Sculpt and nowadays I am just using Apoxie Sculpt for quick fixes like this. But I agree…paper clay is also a great idea! And that might be even cheaper solution than the Apoxie Sculpt. I will definitely look into that đŸ˜‰
I love this. Tip: I have done a similar repair, instead of paper I used mesh repair patch, used for walls, I got it at Walmart. Put the mesh in the hole and glued it in place then used a filler to fill up the hole. The mesh repair patch is good thing to have on hand, comes in handy in so many instances.
That is a great tip, thank you, Jan! đŸ™‚