Shabby chic candle holders: 11 creative recycling ideas to inspire you

It's always nice to light up an evening with romantic, flickering candlelight, and if we like to create this kind of atmosphere from time to time, it certainly helps for us to have not only candles and tealights of all kinds at the ready, but also the objects into which we need to place them. And these candle holders need to be decorative too.

And if you like the shabby chic style, then these candle holders will have to have the vintage look you need - a little worn but also with undertones of a romantic flavor. So, creatively recycling old or commonly found objects and enriching them with delicate and elegant details will make them perfect for our needs. Here are some ideas to draw inspiration from:

An old can, some jute or maybe lace and some other decoration, according to your taste: these are the classic materials from the shabby chic style and with which you can never go wrong.

If instead of large candles you want to use tealights, you will need transparent containers: glass jars come in handy for this, which you could clad with lace.

Another easy project to take advantage of using candles: place them inside ladles hanging from wooden backing panels. And to make it a little more delicate and romantic, you could cover the wood with a flower pattern using paper or fabric.

For narrow and long candles, the stems of old, upturned metal funnels are perfect, even if they are covered in rust.

Then there are the wooden candle holder that are reminiscent of the bars at the backs of old chairs (and there are those who make them from these!). They are decorated with a streaked effect, and it is easy to achieve this effect by hand. 

And they become even more interesting if you paint each part with a different color, which should match each other - and, to be truly shabby chic, should be delicate pastel shades.

To easily place the candles on these wooden supports - even the shorter ones - you can add a "saucer" using old, single-portion cake tins. You can even use those (slightly) damaged over time (indeed, most say using worn-out tins is better!).

Or you can use glass bowls, perhaps with a lot of hanging crystals, like a crystal chandelier.

Another decorative motif iconic to the shabby chic taste are metal cages: put candles or tealights in them and you will have a romantic and vintage decoration.

An old candlestick whose glass shades have been replaced with tea cups - a fascinating idea!

And if you find a metal decorative piece, such as those in wrought iron that are used for outdoor furniture or that were part of some other object (railings, bars, etc...) you can fix glasses or glass jars to it and mount everything on a wall, ready to be covered in candles!

Do you like the shabby chic style?