Posted in Candles, Cottage Style, Jewelry, Linens, Projects to Make | 2 Comments »
Office Lamp to Cottage Candle Art
March 28th, 2006
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A quick look through the entries of the blog and/or around the FrugalByDesign.com site, and you’ll know that I REALLY like finding ways to reuse “junk”, and I do mean what most people call “junk”. I am laughed at repeatedly when I go to auctions and buy piles of “junk” for a few bucks. Most people feel it’s harder to load it all in the car, than it’s even worth.
I am particularly happy when I get FREE junk. I get it from various places – today’s project comes from junk I got from helping a person pack up their store.
An acquaintance of mine (someone I knew from an auction I attend regularly) found out he had some serious medical problems and decided to close his second-hand store and work from home. He told me this at an auction, and I asked what he was doing with everything in his store.
He said that he’d be auctioning a lot of it off in the next week at the very auction we were at. I asked how he was getting it to the auction, and he said he had help to pack the store. I said I’d help and he said no – he had enough help.
I happen to drive by his store when he was to be moving and only saw his car there. I stopped to see what was up and he said no one had shown up yet. So we started in packing together. Other help arrived over time, and the store got packed up and loaded on a truck.
As we were carting trash out, I spied a couple of office floor lamps amongst the trash, that looked like this (Click on the picture to get a bigger view.):
I brought it home and set about “repurposing” it. When I was done, it looked like this:
(Click on the picture to get a bigger view)
What a change! and it was really EASY! Here’s what I did:
* Paint the lamp the color you want. Mine is white.
* Turn the lamp heads so all three face the ceiling. Remove the bulbs.
* Find three pieces of linen you like – these can be doilies, handkerchiefs, napkins, whatever. I used one of each of these.
* Tuck a piece of the linen in each of the lamp heads, anchoring each piece in with an old insulator, dropped in with it’s opening facing the ceiling.
* Rearrange the linen so it looks even – much like you would when you put a curtain on a rod.
* Using the wire found in bread ties, hang crystal drops from each of the pieces of linen. I just threaded the wire through the lace edges of my linen pieces.
* Drape strands of pearls over the three lamp heads. I tucked some pearl ends under the insulators. The insulators held the pearl ends secure.
* Drop a votive into each upturned insulator. Check to make sure none of your linens, pearls or crystals are hanging near were any flame will be.
There ya go! I put this one on my porch where I have a cottage decorating theme.
The other lamp I rescued, had a broken pole. The pole was no longer attached to the base. I plan to plant that broken pole in the middle of one of my gardens (after painting the lamp). I’ll turn the lamps up so they face the sky, remove the bulbs, and set terra cotta pots with flowers and draping vines in them, to make an interesting piece of garden art.
As soon as it’s warm enough to work outside, I’ll set that up and share pictures! Until the, I remain,
Your Frugal Decorating Diva,
Nancy
Anonymous on 22 Mar 2007 at 10:43 pm: 1
nice photo
martha pitts on 23 Mar 2007 at 12:21 pm: 2
a wonderful idea! i love it and your site. i too love to make something out of nothing or something that my dh gets at auctions in box deals, he loves them! please keep posting what you have done, very interesting site.