coffee filter

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.