Makeover Time!

There really is a lot you can do with what you have.  It takes a bit of imagination, ingenuity and inspiration, but it is possible...really it is.  I am hoping this little post each week will help someone somewhere in the inspiration aspect.

Today's makeover time did cost a little money to finish up and I didn't take any pictures of the process...so...I will do the best I can at explaining what I did.

I received some inspiration on at Lowe's when we went there to buy a replacement light for the porch area.  As we were moving in, the ugly globe had gotten broke and it was just an ugly light bulb hanging from the ceiling of the walkway.  So...we were there and I was inspired by the pendant lighting...there were some there that I liked enough that I could live with, but I wanted something different, something no one else had and it wasn't a top priority anyway...I would have to wait.  Here is one at Lowe's that I liked aspects of:

At home I decided to browse Pinterest for ideas and found some really interesting lighting made from canning jars...here's one example from SaiFou.com

Not exactly what I wanted, but I could work with it...I could do a canning jar with some sort of top that made it look lantern-like...so off I went with Carl to the 'storage room' to look for some kind of a lantern type top for my soon to be canning jar pendant...although it probably would have turned out really cute...we ended up not doing that...we got distracted by my boxes of outdoor decor.

I make it sound as if I have tons of outdoor goodies...most of it is rocks...just sayin'...

I have a couple small candle lanterns and one of them caught our eye as a possible candidate for the pendant lamp.  So...we brought it out and took out the glass, sanded it down and painted it with Rust-Oleum's Hammered Metal Finish Spray in Dark Bronze.  Carl then cut a hole in the bottom and used JB Weld to attach a brace in the top for the light.  We then touched up the paint.

I wanted a 'frosted-glass' look, I don't like to see the light bulb so...I went down to the hobby store and bought some scrap-booking supplies...a protective sheet of plastic and couple sheets of semi-transparent 'rice' paper...for the glass.  Using the original glass I cut both to fit, and put the lantern back together layering the plastic, paper and the glass, the glass being on the inside.

We went to Lowe's and looked at the MANY varieties of replacement lamp pieces and cording were hoping to find a pendant lamp kit...but they only had one for track lighting...we decided we would wait for David.  Sometimes it is just best to wait.

Meanwhile I searched the internet for more ideas...it is a short pendant and I really didn't want a chain.  So I went searching on Pinterest again and found tatertots & jello DIY decorating and crafts idea to buy a copper pipe and paint it to match.
 
David and I went to Lowe's and were able to get what we needed, a ceramic lamp replacement piece, the copper pipe and a ceiling canopy.  We had wire already, but bought some round wire just in case, which we didn't end up using.

I was hoping the pipe could be threaded so the lamp would not hang from the cord, that didn't end up working out as the copper pipe was just too soft and it kept breaking off.  Carl painted it, we put it all together and hung it up!   Carl did a great job with this project! It's one of a kind and I love it!

 
Here is a before of the light that was over the sink. 

Hope this has inspired you today!