there is no way to make an old ceiling fan look sexy

by patrick · 3 comments

I’ve tried.

I’ve yanked the blades off, painted a moving scene on five of them (like the phasmatrope…the horse in motion thing…you know!) and put them back on, hoping for awesome.

The blades moved too fast for it to work.

But it looked really cool when it wasn’t moving.

I’ve removed the globes from the infamous three-light model.  I replaced them with Mountain Dew cans with bottom and top removed, the remainder painted and ribbon-cut to look like flowers.

It was a definite improvement.

In transition from place to place, I’m constantly confronted with challenging ceiling fan issues.  Why?  I don’t know.  This one, I’ve stared at for two years.

And here’s what I did.  Finally.

(This would be a great place to show the before and after, but the super-glued, packing tape-mended globe thing fell one too many times and ended up in the garbage.  It was UGLY.  Really ugly.)

Here is its replacement:

ceilingfan1

It works well, aside from the fact that it has a ceiling fan attached to it.

The full ceiling fan effect:

ceilingfan2

It’s a prototype, experiment, mock-up, whatever.

It might look much better in multiples, sans ceiling fan.

It was created with plastic binders and a soldering iron.

Another view:

ceilingfan3

What do you think?

If nothing else I can yank it off, turn it upside down, photograph it and see if Frank Gehry has an interest.

If not that…Lady Gaga would totally go for it.

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  • Jon

    pretty cool…I’d make sure your smoke alarms have fresh batteries tho’ ; )

  • http://thriftview.blogspot.com/ Van

    It is an improvement, and it’s very interesting. But I do think the retro swirls and wood of this fan are better suited to a random steam punk style installment rather than your pretty, wispy, modern piece. The juxtaposition is still striking, nonetheless.

  • Gena

    I love it.  I took my ceiling fan down, cut the ends of the blades off straight (what are those nipple shaped ends supposed to be?).  I then spray-painted the blades dark gray and the fan itself silver, replaced the globe with a school house type globe and it actually looks pretty cool.  Total cost was about $14 compared to a new fan that seems as if it is trying too hard for $200. 

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