Our Hopeful Home: How To Turn A Table Lamp Into A Pillar Candle Holder

Today I’m sharing how I transformed an ornate vintage French farmhouse table lamp into a tall pillar candle holder -- that doubles as a plant stand!

tall candlestick white pillar candle boxwood candle ring

This post contains affiliate links. A purchase of any one of these items helps to support this blog and its creative efforts at no cost to you. To read more, please see my disclosure page.

This Goodwill find could definitely be featured in one of my Thrill of the Hunt posts. For $3.99 I couldn’t not put it in my shopping cart.

I knew it was supposed to be a decorative lamp that was basically a night light since it would only accept a small, low watt bulb. It was also missing the lamp shade. But that was okay since I didn’t want to use it as a lamp anyway.

I was drawn in by the intricate details of it as well as its worn, vintage look. It resembled many of my favorite tall altar candlesticks. I knew that with a little ingenuity this one would be a perfect fit for my collection.

base of lamp with wrapped cord and switch

The details were fabulous.

I also loved the crackled look! But I had to get rid of the hardware and the cord if I wanted to make it into a candle holder. So I first cut the electrical cord and discarded it.

The actual transformation was fairly easy. I just slipped off the paper socket shell and then unscrewed the metal "u" (for lack of a better term) as seen above. Then my husband stepped in with his hacksaw and sawed the metal threads down as close to the base as possible.

And voila. It would have been nice to have the metal threads completely flush with the base but that wasn't going to happen with a hacksaw. It was fine since I knew I could manage a workaround if necessary.

That workaround consisted of my husband's idea: why not fill in the extra space between the top of the metal threads and the lip of the platform with stacked cardboard rounds? Or what we call drip mats in our house. As avid craft beer drinkers (and former brewers) we have plenty of them to go around.

Once I made holes in them to acommodate the metal threads sticking out in the middle, the stacked drip mats created a fully flat surface on which to place candles -- or anything else for that matter.

I used four stacked drip mats total.

I painted the top drip mat with Folk Art Home Decor Chalk Paint in Sheepskin to seamlessly match it with the lamp base so that no one would even know I had stacked the drip mats inside the base.

tall candle holder with willow wrapped candle

Once I had the four drip mats situated (and the top one painted) I was ready to add a candle or two. My willow wrapped pillar candle looked gorgeous on it!

tall pillar candle holder with boxwood candle ring

My real wax pillar candle with a boxwood candle ring also looked fabulous on it.

mantel candle holder terra cotta pot wreath moss ball

As much as I loved using it as a candle holder, I also knew I could use it for something else. So I added a terra cotta pot and moss ball instead of a candle. And that worked, too!

French farmhouse terra cotta pot boxwood wreath candle holder

Let's not forget the boxwood wreath. They're the go-to for many of my home decor accents.

white ceramic candle holder boxwood wreath gilded mirror mantel decor

This mantel vignette includes a vintage piece of artwork I recently picked up at an antique mall as an early Mother's Day present to myself. I'll be sharing it with you separately soon.

Here it is sitting pretty as the newest member of my collection of tall altar candlesticks. (which I'll also share later). It fits right in with those stately beauties. And I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Well, that's it for today, friends!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about

How To Turn A Table Lamp Into

A Pillar Candle Holder

and that I've inspired you in some way.

Don't Forget To Pin It!