Making Old Candles New

My name is Haley and I have a problem: Scented candles. I love them. And I have the misfortune of working at a place that has 24 linear feet of various brands... All of which I get a whopping 40% discount on. It's pretty shameful. John keeps trying to forbid me from buying more and somehow my collection keeps growing anyway. ^_^

I love to decorate with candles. The problem is that many of my favorite scents come in really ugly jars. WoodWick candles are beautifully curvy, Alassais candles are works of art, but Yankee? Oh, Yankee Candle, you break my heart with the silhouette of your chunky, lidded jars!

I can fix it for less than $2.00, though, which is a pittance compared to the price of the candles themselves.

You'll Need:

1 extra long wick
1 tall cylindrical container
1 small saucepan
1 large, ugly candle

Optional Accessories:

1 sandwich bag
1 hurricane vase
36 oz. large grain colored sand
small seashells
#30 jute twine

Instructions:

Take the lid of the candle and put the jar in a saucepan. Fill the pot with water, reaching no more than half way up the candle walls. Turn heat to medium-low and let the wax slowly melt. This takes a while. Like, at least half an hour. I recommend you find something else to do in the interim. Make sure it's something that will allow you to check on the progress frequently. The last thing you want is shattered glass or a ruined pot. Once the wax is melted (or mostly so) fix up your wick. I bent the top of mine around a spoon, but I've also taped it to the side of a straw in the past. Drop the wick into the new container so that it is centered and the metal base is flush with the bottom, then tie/tape/bend off the top to something to stabilize it. VERY CAREFULLY pour the melted wax into the new container, reserving some in the old jar. Put the jar back in the pot and set it to the side, but go ahead and turn the stove off. You need to wait a few hours for the wax to begin to set up. As it sets, you'll notice that the top is no longer even. There are dips and peaks and it just doesn't look as pleasant as you probably imagined. That's okay, we can fix that.

Remember the little bit of wax left in the jar? Remelt it once the candle is set up (ie, you can't budge the top layer much with your finger). Then carefully pour the remaining wax onto the candle to level it out. The problem is that, like everything else in nature, wax condenses as it cools. Unfortunately, because it's a pillar of wax and not a sheet, it cools unevenly causing all those ridges. The second application should smooth most of them out. If it's still not to your satisfaction, you can gently press with your finger once the wax is solid but still slightly warm and push and stroke it into the smoothness you want.

Once the wax is fully set, clip the wick down to about an inch or a little less from the top of the candle. with a knife, gently clean up any splashed wax to make a neat presentation. Ta-da! Beautiful, new candle.

You can go a step further like I did with this one and create a display with your new candle. I had a hurricane vase that an aunt gave me years ago as a gift. My guest bath is a little plain since I haven't gotten around to my first renovation yet, so I made a vanity piece for it. Place the candle in the vase. Put a sandwich bag over the top of the candle. Trust me on this. Don't use saran wrap or tin foil or whatever. Just stick a baggie over it. Pour some pretty, large-grit sand around the candle to about half way up. Pinching either side of the bag, shake the inevitably collected sand in an even motion around the outside. Layer in small seashells about another quarter of the way up the candle. Wrap several layers of jute around the vase and tie in a bow.

For less than $10 (if you already had the original candle and the vase) you've made a new piece of beach-themed art. :-)

Custom or IKEA?

I've long admired all these DIY bloggers I follow. Many of them aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and custom build themselves something they long for. In theory, I'm not either. I can roll up plans and measurements with the best of them. But executing those plans is another story. I'm strangled by fear of screwing up and wasting tons of money. I'm also hampered by the cost of getting someone else to build my plans professionally. Suddenly, this morning I cast my thoughts to a post I've been enamored with by Kenz over at IBK.

Why not take something with the bones you want and make it into what you need?

And wouldn't you know there's an IKEA just over the state line in Atlanta, Georgia? :-)

Now, this is a lucky turn of events for us. It would cost us about $60 in gas to drive my dad's truck there and back. Why is that lucky? Because shipping to our house would cost twice as much as the actual product! Try a minimum of $199 the last time I calculated. However, despite the savings I definitely don't want to make the trip more than once, so I'm measuring and plotting and planning exactly what I'll need.

There will be seams where all the pieces fit together. That can't really be avoided. And I hate the idea of all those little holes running down the insides for "adjustable" shelving. Before we spend any big bucks, I'm going to get a few brands of white filler putty and see how well they cover and how much it'll take. Then, of course, I'll have to run moulding around the crown and base to give the pieces a more solid look.

I've actually already figured out that I can build a five-cabinet media and book shelf over our couch for about $150. Not too shabby, eh? I think the kitchen "bar" project is going to cost quite a bit more, probably around $400. I know that sounds like a lot (it is!), but it would easily cost three times that to pay someone to build it and only slightly less than that were I to do it myself.

Here's some of the products I'm thinking of mixing and matching:

Of course, I'm still looking through their vast catalog. There's so many sizes and shapes to choose from to make exactly what I need. Have you ever done an IKEA hack? Have you ever taken a piece of furniture and turned it into something else?