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DIY Canoe Chandelier

I like nautical antiquities - its a fancy label for the amount of old, broken, rotten, smelly, awesome boat stuff that I have laying around. Some of it will be restored (someday), while others stuff is just to have. While most of America is focused on minimalism, I am running the other way, “collecting” historical watercraft memorabilia.

Of all the old boat things I have, one of the most iconic items from boating times of the past are wooden canoes. They have awesome shape, color, and just look like relaxing summer fun when things were simpler. Someday I will spend the time to build one to use on the lake, but ever since I fixed up my old pole barn into a woodshop/boat shop, I wanted a ceiling canoe light to hang high in the rafters.

One day, a shotty 14’ homemade canoe popped up on Facebook marketplace. I’m a sucker for a wood boat deal on Facebook or Craigslist - I have to at least ask/go look at it. I found a canoe that had solid wood, but looked like someone had rushed in building it and things were not symmetrical, and the fiberglass had so many wrinkles and seems all over. It probably would float just fine but wouldn’t paddle straight. But I couldn’t leave it behind for $100. I knew it was the right candidate for a light or shelves (something else I plan to make someday).

Watch the Canoe Chandelier Build

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How to build a Canoe Light Fixture

The first task is to make the canoe look correct. Depending on the canoe it might be perfect with the patina it has to just start building the light. However, this canoe needed some woodworking to make it look complete and put-together.

First I removed all the gunnels, which is the wood “trim” around the canoe. The original was cracked and broken, and I wanted to add some new clean wood to make it look a little more “professional” vs patina and worn.

After the wood was replaced, I lightly sanded the entire canoe inside and out to prepare for new varnish. I was careful, not to sand too much but do a “scratch coat” and leave enough old varnish for the new to stick too. I used some older half cans of varnish and started with Minwax, and then applied Total Boat as the final coats. I am a fan of Total Boat products and used their Gloss on the exterior, and the Satin on the interior of the canoe.

Hanging a Canoe from the Ceiling

To hang the canoe from my barn ceiling, I added a few 2x4s to double up the wood I was going to mount to. Check your application, and make sure you have enough structure to hold your canoe up so it won’t fall. I used 8” eye bolts that were bolted through the 2x4 joists to hang from. The bolts were not only strong, but allowed me to also bolt the 2x 2x4s together for extra strength.

To raise the canoe up, I used ratchet straps and slowly raised each side, little by little, until I reached the height I wanted. Once I had it in place, I used 3/4” rope and antique pulleys (blocks) to hang it. I looped around the canoe with the rope several times and put screws, through the rope and into the canoe, on every loop, and on both sides of the canoe- No knots were used.

Canoe Light Fixture with Antique Pulleys

How To Wire a Ceiling Light

Caution: check your local building codes and ensure your safety when working with electricity. For the lighting, we ordered 2 light fixtures from Amazon, and a bunch of Edison bulbs to go with them. Finding an existing light fixture to mount into the canoe is easier, cheaper, and less time consuming than running individual wires for each bulb.

To mount these lights, I drilled a small hole into the bottom of the canoe and then screwed the fixture directly to the canoe wood. All the wiring came together on-top of the fixture and I used push in connectors to tie the 2 fixtures together. Everything was wire stapled to the canoe and hidden. Once the light was wired together, I ran it over to a switch on the wall and it was ready to turn on.