I’ve had a lone, natural wood candlestick in my display for an embarrassingly long time. I’ve been wanting a set of chippy white candlesticks (I can’t imagine that someone’s been watching too much Fixer Upper!), but when I looked in stores they were either too expensive or not what I had pictured. I finally gave up and picked up a second crafting candlestick last week. I told myself I was going to paint them for a quick candlestick DIY, and lo and behold I actually did!
I don’t know if it’s the unusually late May rain but my kids were crazy last Saturday. During some much-needed Quiet Time (where they choose a few books and look at them in their bed) I managed to get these adorable candlesticks painted. Talk about a fast and fun DIY project! You can also see one of the new farmhouse wooden bead garlands that I finished this weekend decorating the base of one of the candlesticks.
If you’ve been waiting to add some candlesticks to your collection of home decor, grab some now! There are so many reasons to love them. They are easy to move around within or between displays, they add a fantastic variety of heights to any display, and they are perfect for holding seasonal items. I think candlesticks could be considered one of the most essential home decor items to have on hand! The set I painted is short compared to some of the awesome farmhouse candlesticks out there, so they can easily fit on my seasonal display shelf, but I’m pretty sure a larger and more elaborate candlestick DIY is in my future 😉
What you need:
- natural wood candlesticks/ wood pedestals
- paint
- sandpaper
That’s it! I picked up these craft candlesticks at craft stores but you could also order them from Amazon and glue a simple round wood plaque on top if you want a wider top. There are 4″ tall candlesticks here, 9″ candlesticks here, and 11″ candlesticks here. The taller one I have can be found at Michaels here. I love Folk Art Home Decor Chalk paint, which is in white here and brown here. Be sure to click on the correct quantity and size when purchasing any of these items, as Amazon automatically puts it on the largest one!
Links to products that I use and love are through Amazon’s Affilates program; I may earn a small commission from sales that will not cost you more and help support my site so I can keep bringing you amazing content!
Alright, now onto the tutorial 🙂
Rustic Farmhouse Candlestick DIY
First, I just painted them white. I did two coats so it was uniformly white, and almost stopped right there because they looked so nice! However, since I knew I was going to display white items on them often enough, I wanted a chippy look for more contrast.
Next I wet a paper towel, folded it over, and dipped the edge in brown paint. I tried to concentrate the brown paint on the edges and creases, with a few random spots on the rest.
Once I had enough brown where I wanted it I sanded those areas. I then repainted white over the larger brown areas, leaving mostly the edges and creases brown.
And that’s it! Chalk paint dries so fast that it’s easy to get this candlestick DIY finished whenever you have 15-20 minutes to spare. You could do additional sandpaper and coats of brown for a more rustic look, or use less brown if you want them barely distressed. The great part about the rustic/chippy look is there’s no wrong way to do it.
I hope this quick tutorial took the mystery out of chippy candlesticks! Stay tuned for my tutorial on wooden bead garlands, and pictures of my full summer display. Are you ready for summer too? Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more sneak peeks, as well as pictures of our mini-vacations! I am having so much fun preparing my summer display despite the rain; if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out my Rae Dunn inspired signs tutorial!
[…] of tassels and tags. You can see some shots of my simpler garland in my Easy Candlestick DIY post here! Do you already have a wooden bead garland? If you were to make your own, what colors would you […]