Let there be light!

I made lamps. Seriously! I MADE 2 lamps. Kennedy and I are in the process of (finally) decorating our room. I was out at TJMaxx the other day, scrounging for some decor items, when I came across a couple of vases. I've been wanting to make a lamp (or lamps) for a while now, and these were a perfect way to start, because I didn't have to drill anywhere for the cord.

Here are the vases I found. They were $15.00 each, and actually came with a matching lid. However, one of them was missing a lid, so I was able to haggle a little and get one of them for about 10% off. Score!

Here are my lamp kits. If you look closely, you'll see that one of these was on sale. When I took it to the register, I was able to haggle and get the other one on sale too. At first, I thought they were exactly the same, but when I got home, I realized that one is a push-through switch, and one is a turn-knob. No big deal, because it saved me a couple of bucks! So far, I've saved $4.00!

Here are my other tools. A hot glue gun, and some cork tiles.

I used the cork to plug the top of the vase and hold the lamp kit in place, so I traced a circle and cut it out. This lamp-making thing is so simple, it's ridiculous.

Viola! Tried and true.

Next, I took the threaded tube (that will later hold the lamp wire) and poked a hole through the cork. No cutting necessary, just twist and push through for the perfect-sized hole.

Here's the fun part. I pushed that copper end of the wire through a hole at the bottom of the vase, then threaded it through the metal tube, and there it is! I won't go into detail on step-by-step instructions here, because any lamp-kit you buy will have it's own set of instructions. BUT, you need to follow those instructions to the letter. There are two wires there, and both have a certain place to be fastened. Otherwise, the kit won't work.

My underwriter's knot.

Once the kit was assembled, I pulled out the trusty hot glue gun and glued the wire inside the vase in place, and then I glued the cork in place around the inner-rim of the vase. I can rhyme all the time! I ended up using lampshades that we already had from some other ugly lamps hanging out in a closet somewhere. I also used my left-over cork to glue to the bottom of the lamps, so they wouldn't scratch our wood side tables.

And drumroll, please....

Ta-da!

You can do it, too! Kennedy also made a good suggestion to paint the cork white so it would blend in with the lamps. Also, it would make it look a little less 3's company (if you catch my drift.) He's so smart!

Next, I want to make some lamps out of glass vases. This will require a little more finesse, as I will have to find a diamond-tipped drill bit and drill a hole without busting the vase. I got a good tip from a handy-man about how to do this. I will also be consulting this website when the time comes. Good thing I've been saving all our glass jars from our kitchen, so I can practice!

Next blog post, I'll be addressing the fact that I set our heater to 88 (as high as it would go) about an hour ago, and our house is still only 60 degrees. I'm FREEZING!