The middle school craft project gone wrong

...well, it's done. I really wanted to replace this UGLY UGLY pendant light. My husband claims that he "likes it" but what that really meant was that he didn't want me to spend money on a new light. So I tried to come up with something creative and cute. I finished the project (finally) but it does remind me of that middle school craft project gone wrong :) Kelly, you are not the only one; lighting is difficult, in my view.

Here's to effort and how I did it.


We bought our home in October 2013 and it came with 1990s wall color (which is, by the way, was something akin to a Jackson Pollock painting) AND this lovely light fixture. (Sorry, this is the best photo that I have.)

I thought about this for a while; what do I want? I do like the standard shabby chic chandeliers adorned with soft colors and crystal drops but our home is a solid transitional style and shabby chic just doesn't mesh.

I saw this tutorial over at Crafty Nest on how to replicate the West Elm Abaca pendant lamp but I needed more light than what could be supplied by a 1-bulb pendant lamp. I decided on a hemp lampshade from this $8 chandelier I found at Good Deeds Thrift Shop in Pembroke, MA.

I tossed the shade and spray painted the small chandelier underneath white!

For how I made the shade, I will refer you again to the tutorial at Crafty Nest for the basic premise - by the way, I used the regular tacky glue and not the more expensive clear version and it worked just fine - but I did modify the method in two ways. First, I needed a bigger lamp, so I used a fitness ball instead of a small plastic ball. Second, I created more of a lamp shade to fit over my chandelier rather than a globe for a pendant light. Here are the pictures of my modified method.

And the easy part (for me) was putting the shade on the chandelier and hard-wiring the fixture into the ceiling. I am much more handy than I am crafty, so hard-wiring a light fixture is no problem. In the event that you are the opposite, go to Brittany's blog Pretty Handy Girl. There she has written a very thorough tutorial on safely installing hard-wired lighting.

In a true fit of self-deprecation, I can tell you with certainty that I really don't like the finished product. But I did learn a lot in the process. As an aside, do you recognize the chair in the background? Love that chair and table.

Fun fact: I used sticks found on a walk to attach the lampshade to the chandelier :) This was really a good idea! A dowel would have worked, too.

And here's why I like the hemp style shade - and why I will keep this light fixture up until I figure out how to improve it.

All in, I'm proud of myself for pushing through this long and slightly frustrating project. Unfortunately, though, I think that my cat Rudi would have done a better job :) I will improve this light fixture - perhaps I'll go back to the drawing board with the hemp.

Stay tuned...

Bex Wilder