By now, I’m sure you’ve realized I love a good DIY project. I don’t get too intimidated by projects so long as it doesn’t include building. That’s Ben’s domain. It’s a definite plus when I get to use a glue gun, too. With that out on the table, I have another confession. I loathe ceiling fans. We have two in our house, well,now we have one. They were in the house when Ben bought it and we kept them because we didn’t have air conditioning before. Now that we have air, (not to mention we’re going into winter) we no longer needed the fans. I saw a DIY lighting idea over at Kara Paslay Designs and I knew I had to make one.
I already had a paper lantern (I think mine is smaller than this one listed at IKEA), so I bought a package of coffee filters and warmed up my glue gun. 
First, I crumpled up a batch of filters.
Add a liberal amount of hot glue at the base and press firmly to the lantern. To avoid glue burns, put your fingers inside the filter to press. Yeah, learned that a few times…
Start at the base, working around the center opening.
Work your way down and around, keeping the filters close to one another.
Keep gluing, and gluing, and gluing.
Run out of coffee filters because you only bought 200 thinking that would be plenty for a small light. Unplug glue gun, go to Target and get more. Come back, warm up glue gun and proceed gluing.
Once the shade is finished, I needed to find a cord kit. How hard could that be? Very, without an IKEA nearby. I suggest picking up their cord kit. Because I didn’t have their handy-dandy cord, I bought this assortment.
The lamp kit cost $4.97 and the picture wire was $1.97, both from Wal-Mart. The ceiling canopy was from Lowe’s for $4.98. I needed the canopy because we were hard wiring the light.
To hang, get the help of an electrician or your handy husband. Once handy man is present and accounted for, assemble socket, switch, and cord, securing to the lantern. Throw away remaining bottle lamp kit pieces. Add a length of wire to bear the weight of the shade. Hardwire and affix to canopy. Flip the switch and bask in the beauty that is your new, cheap pendant.
I still have some touch up work to do on the ceiling where the fan covered, but I’m happy to procrastinate on that.
So, now I’m sure you’re wondering what the thing cost.
Paper shade: Already owned
500 coffee filters: $3.98
Glue gun and glue: Already owned
Lamp cord kit: $4.97
Picture wire: $1.97
Ceiling canopy: $4.98
for a grand total of: $15.90.
As if that wasn’t enough inspiration to make your own, here’s another fabulous coffee filter light made by Nichole at Parlour.
Have you attempted a DIY light fixture? Seen any you want to attempt? Maybe you’ve seen a designer light that you would love to recreate? Spill.
Beehive
/ November 11, 2010I saw this on a blog a few weeks ago and loved how it looked. I am planning to do the same thing for our little room upstairs since we just moved its light into our bedroom. Now to get rid of the last remaining ceiling fan…
Beehive
/ November 11, 2010Sorry about the signature on that comment, WordPress decided to autofill for me. Would you mind deleting that?
Allison
/ November 11, 2010How awesome is this?! I’ve made coffee filter wreaths and used them for other things but would have never thought about putting them on a paper lantern for a light fixture! LOVE IT! Thanks for sharing!
Elise
/ November 11, 2010I love this. Coffee filters don’t come in fun colors, do they?
ourhumbleabowed
/ November 11, 2010Hi Elise,
Not that I’m aware of, but I bet cute cupcake liners would work.
Amanda
Jenny@Anything Pretty
/ November 11, 2010Love this! It is amazing what some coffee filters can do!
Courtney
/ November 11, 2010Hmm, I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to dye the coffee filters before attaching them. A cute little puff of pink and purple for my girls’ rooms.
Lorie Smith
/ November 12, 2010So cute! I bet it would look nice to use the tan “unbleached” filters too.
Christy
/ November 12, 2010OH I love it! I am attempting to do a pendant light in my foyer like this: http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/06/office-progress-let-there-be-light/
Suesan
/ November 12, 2010Wow! How awesome is that? That is seriously cute. Thanks for showing how to do this.
DimplePrints
/ November 12, 2010Cute, great idea! Carli-DimplePrints
Sandra
/ November 13, 2010Beautiful! I will most definitely “borrow” this for the future.
Visiting from Tatertots & Jello.
Nichole @ Parlour
/ November 18, 2010Glad I could help inspire you. It turned out lovely! Well done!
rene@bargainhoot
/ November 19, 2010What a beautiful light!!!
Heather
/ December 22, 2010Hi Amanda — Thanks for this gorgeous idea! I’m working on this project today and I also ran out of coffee filters!
Kim
/ December 29, 2010Amanda! – This is simply ahhhhh-maaaaaa-zzzziiiiiing! It’s beautiful! Who would’ve thought?! I will have to try this for my daughter’s room.
Stacy
/ December 29, 2010This is amazing!!!!! I saw this over at CSI. I LOVE it!
Jannell
/ March 2, 2011I love love love this!!
Just jumped over from your link on young house love- so glad I did! I’ve been totally coveting this in mags, but can’t shell out for one. This is def bumping up to number one on the to do list
….and now off to check out the rest of your site
ourhumbleabowed
/ March 2, 2011Hey Jannell,
Thanks for stopping by! Take the tour and stay a while. I highly recommend making this light; it’s easy and cheap. You could also make a large version. Your home is looking great. The stairs must have been a pain, but so worth it!
Amanda
Tiffany
/ March 2, 2011I will DEFINITELY be trying this!! I saw something similar used at a birthday party–those would be great for that too…or a nursery…you name it. Thanks for the inspiration!! To answer your question, this is the only light fixture I’ve ever attempted…Now that my daugther is 15 months old and everything has become destructible, it’s in the back of my closet. But I enjoyed it while it lasted.
http://thetastefulllife.blogspot.com/2010/04/diy-how-to-make-teacup-lamp.html
emily
/ March 25, 2011I am planning on attempting a pendant light similar to the string one – the Moooi Random in the near future. My grandma used to have us do Easter projects using yarn and glue and it always worked fabulously, so I thought I would give it a go. We’ll see! I love your coffee filter light! We recently did a drum shade pendant light, working with the cords/electric stuff that was already there and we love it!
lesa moore
/ July 26, 2011Fyi…I saw this being made on HGTV House Crashers, Saturday, July 23rd but could not find the full episode.
ourhumbleabowed
/ July 26, 2011Lesa, that’s so cool! This fixture design is so great because it is so cheap and easy to make. Gotta love that.
Becca
/ August 26, 2011What a great idea! It looks a little bit like Young House Love’s bedroom shot with their Ikea lamp shade Great job!
Inspire Me Heather
/ September 30, 2011Your light looks gorgeous! I’ve got this linked to my pendant lights post too today, well done!
Jenn(ifer) @ heim-elich
/ October 13, 2011So I made (copied) another one of your projects…
http://heim-elich.blogspot.com/2011/10/diy-schlafzimmerlampe-die-2te.html
Thanks for the inspiration!
Kimberly Bonham
/ December 14, 2011Coffee filters work wonders! I have made a coffee filter wreath and a lamp. We just moved into a new place and the light over the dining area is hideous! I am def. doing this! It will look awesome and I already have the paper lantern and the filters. Time to start gluing!!!
AJ
/ January 7, 2012How cool! And I like the suggestions someone made about dyeing the filters, how cool for a nursery or kids room! I pinned this page and within 20 minutes over a dozen people had re-pinned it! Great idea!