And the decor questions keep a-rollin’ in! Today’s question pertains to a common decorating conundrum: the ceiling fan. On our Facebook fan page, Reader Tricia C. wants to pick your crafty brains for ceiling fan ideas that will fit a fairy/woodland type of theme. She writes:
For my niece’s birthday, we’re transforming her drab little room into a tinkerbell forest! We’re on a tight budget, so I’m making a lot of stuff myself. One thing I would like to fancy up would be the ceiling fan. It’s your ordinary run-of-the-mill fans, with the large bowl light in the middle. I want to do something whimsical, but cheap. I was thinking making it look like a large flower with the bowl being the flower center. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Reader Kat B. suggests painting the blades of the fan; in a similar vein, if you could find contact paper with a tree bark print of some sort you could use it to dress up the blades as well, lending to the woodland theme. What other ways can you decorate a ceiling fan?
[image by kevinrosseel @ morguefile.com]
16 Comments
Sara
One idea would be felt or construction paper leaves taped securely to the blades. You could add some little pixie dolls or some butterflys in different colors dangling down by some fishing line (and maybe some small metalic stars for pixie dust). Depending on how fast the fan went, on the lowest possible speed, it would look like the dolls/butterflies were fluttering over head.
Rae
you could paint the blades like leaves and have the bulb in the center be the blooming flower. you can even paint a bloom onto it with heat resistant paint, maybe just the outline of the bloom so the light shines through enough.Just an idea! I am decorating my daughters room in a country garden theme, and this is what we are going to do with her ceiling fan!
or the blades could be blue with clouds and the bulb be the sun? :)
Cydnee Kaine
Contact paper is a nice way to change up a plain old fan and it doesn’t ruin it if your renting, also makes it easy to scrap if you’ve changed you mind. If your not renting some paint goes a long way, and for the base part below the blades you can make a pretty chandelier out of old milk jugs cut into circles and paper clipped together or small cuts of laminated old book pages. If you check out one of Mark Montano’s decor books the tutorials are in there.
Not to mention making one of the many pretty beaded chandeliers that have been featured on this blog, and hanging it off of the base as well.
Denise
You could possibly hot glue fabric flowers and maybe some ivy to the blades. Not sure how that would work with the fan on, but I think it might look cute while the fan is off.
You might be able to decoupage some sort of fabric to the blades like a solid matching color or a glittery fabric. If you can find a crackle or maybe that stone look spray paint for the metal parts, I think it would look nice.
Michelle Adams
I hated the look of my ceiling fan. So one day I decided to take off the ugly, brown blades and paint them and then I Mod Podged heart embellishments on them. If you have a cricut, you can use the Tinkerbell cartridge to make everything “fairie”!!
Kimberly
Drill small holes in the ends and weave through strips of tulle (get rolls at a craft store). when the fan spins, they’re pretty streamers. When it’s not turning, they’re just sparlky decorations~!
Wendy
My favorite idea is to use scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. Paper comes in so many themes and textures, I’m sure she could find the perfect combo. Pick them up at your local hobby store, and don’t forget to use the coupons in your Sunday paper to save $$$. Here is a tutorial: http://getyourcrafton.blogspot.com/2009/09/rooty-tute-tuesday-mod-podge-ceiling.html
Tee
Hmmm, ceiling fan blades are cantankerus(sp) If you had much to them it throws the balance off.
Think about coloring the fixture with opaque paint or try pouring the stained glass paint inside the bowl. You don’t want to block off the light. Paint the blades like someone said, “make it look like a flower”.
If it were me doing this project, I’d leave the whole fan white and put a couple of large leaves on the ceiling. That way it’d look like a giant white flower and a lot less work, lol.
Caitlyn
I always wanted to paint each blade of a fan with a gradient of colors (maybe pink at the tips of the blades fading to white near the center?) and then watch them blur together when I turned it on.
and you can paint contact paper with acrylic paints, if you want the option of removing it down the road
Molly
If you are going to paint the blades, do them all the same… like Caitlyn said you could paint them different shades from tip to centre, but make them all similar to one another. I had a friend who painted each blade in different bright colors, looked cool when off, but when going on full it was enough to send you into a seizure. If you painted each similar, maybe darker on the outside then fade toward the middle, when on it would blend to look like a flower pattern. Could add some speckles to the middle light so it looked more like the centre of the flower.
With some clear nylon (like fishing string) you could hang some butterflies or dragon flies near the middle so they would flutter when fan is on, but not interfere with the blade balance.
Most blades are made double sided, so you could always paint the one side and if you decide down the road you don’t like it, they can be turned over.
cindy
How about yellow lightbulb in the lamp as a flower center and large petals cut out of some painted plastic (reuse milk cartons?) and placed around the light to be the petals. Cut out a flat petal shape with a straight cut up the center of the petal stopping about half way to the tip of the petal. Staple, glue or otherwise join the two sides together with a bit of an overlap to get the petal to curl. Now cut out a circle from the joined pieces to slip over the lamp when the shade is removed. Attach several petals this way, at least five, maybe seven and then reattach the lamp cover. This way the petals can be removed easily as they are not really attached at all, just hanging there. The curl of the petals should face down to keep them from getting caught in the blades when it turns. And then paint the fan blades green to be the leaves. Just flat green or green base with another shade of green hand painted to be the veins of the leaf and give more dimnension.
This way the decor won’t change the balance of the fan blades which are difficult. And it will be easy to clean. Fan blades pick up a ton of dust so if you go with some of the other 3D ideas on here, make them removable so you can clean them well. Glue any 3D embellishments to a paper or plastic shapes the same as your blade and attach elastic straps that fit over the blade and slip on and off for cleaning and changing decor.
Someone else suggested stain glass paint and that might work better than a yellow bulb so that it is yellow on or off.
Or paint the whole fan the same color as the ceiling to make it “disappear” and allow all your other decor to shine.
ms t
i’m not trying to put a damper on your fan decorating, but i would be concerned (a) of something coming loose, including something small & insignficant, and causing bodily harm (ie something falling in your eye, tripping over something that fell off) or damage to walls & furniture (ie if something fell off while the fans were on, & what kid doesn’t want to test the limits on something new?!); and (b) of voiding the fan warranty because they deem your decorations as ‘modifications’, however permanent or nonpermanent they may be. even something as ‘safe’ as paint, if not applied properly to the existing fan finish &/or exposed to heat/moisture/etc, can chip & flake off.
@cindy had the safest, albeit boring, idea of letting the ceiling fan ‘disappear’ into the ceiling & focusing on decorating the rest of the room.
Stephanie
I think leaving the fan off is the best decorating way to go. Contact paper on the blades for a leaf affect would be cool, but you can go even easier – and less sticky – with just wrapping them with green tissue paper. It will keep it slightly opaque, and just using clear tape on the top side to hold the tissue paper on, you’ll only add minimal weight.
Keep with the tissue paper theme by making a large tissue paper flower for the center. Just layer up sheets of tissue paper in the colors you like, fold them back & forth accordian style, then secure in the middle. Trim the ends to make them more “petal” like, carefully unfold & place near the center bulb. We did these for my youngest’s 3rd bday to liven up our drab basement & make it fit her Princess & Frog theme more. They are still hanging from her bedroom ceiling, 6 mo later.
Sandie
I have redone several fans by adding vinyl. The posibilities are endless and it does NO damage to your fan. I blogged about redoing my son’s room complete with a vinyl decorated ceiling fan. Come by and check it out.
http://simsamsueinahouseofblue.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-room-for-holden.html
Amy
Make sure you have a cool (but well-attached) “pull” at the end of each chain. Even just a little plastic fairy toy would be fun! Use E6000 glue for maximum stickage.
Reba
Paint each blade yellow or what color she loves, then paint the center black or leave it white. It will look like a flower on her ceiling. You can also take leaves from the dollar tree store and glue them together in a bunch and then put it on her wall. It will look like a forest. Putting things on the blades will get really dusty and if she has allergies, you might not want to do that other than paint it to make it look like a flower. I know first hand, my daughter has severe allergies and I did something funky with her fan when she was younger and she sneezed everytime the fan was on. Just a thought. Hope everything turns out great for your niece. Take care. Keep smiling. :)