Turning a Glass Vase Into a Lamp Tutorial

This tutorial is by Aaron at The Thrifty Abode:

I absolutely love finding a bargain or a knock-off that looks exactly like an item from Pottery Barn, West Elm, or ______________(fill in your favorite inspiring, but out of budget store here).   What's even better is creating the item from things I already own and a couple things I found at a hardware store.
That's exactly what I did with my glass jug and $18 I spent at Lowe's.

I turned this:

Into this:

I'd been working on refreshing my living room and looking for a cheaper version of one of these lamps.

Pottery Barn lamp

In all of my searching I never found one.  I'd had the glass jug pictured above for years and I started wondering how difficult it could be to turn it into a lamp.  The only difference between my $15 jug and the $100 + lamps was a hole and some wiring.

I knew that bottle lamp kits were sold at Lowe's so all I had to do was figure out how to put a hole in my jug.  With a little research I found out that I needed a ceramic cutting drill bit.  I made a trip to Lowe's and picked up the kit and bit (I got the 5/16") for $18.

via

via

I got my supplies home and got drilling!  I put some tape on the jug because I was nervous about it cracking.  Thank goodness it didn't crack, but it did take about five minutes of drilling to make a hole big enough for the cord to fit.  

 

After the hole was made, all I had to do was follow the instructions on the lamp kit packaging (it's surprisingly easy).  I only had to make one adjustment.  The stoppers that are included in the kit were all too small for the opening of my jug, so I used a little hot glue to create a seal so the stopper would fit.  The hot glue worked great and you can't even tell it's there.  

 

Here's the finished product again:

 

And here's what it cost me:
New money spent:

• drill bit: $8
• lamp kit:  $10

$18 is pretty good for a solid PB or West Elm knock-off.
Here's what it would cost if all the parts had to be bought new:

• bit and kit:  $18
• jug:  $10-$15  (The shelves of HomeGoods, T.J. Maxx, and Marshall's are littered with glass jug thingies.  Mine was $15, but I've seen ones the same size for $10.)
• drum shade:  $15 from Wal-Mart's Canopy line
• lamp harp and prongs:  $4 (you may need these depending on what kind of shade you have.  These are also sold at Lowe's)

$47-$52 is still about half of what it would cost to buy the Pottery Barn Eva lamp.
 
I hope you'll hop over to The Thrifty Abode and check out my other thrifty adventures in decorating.
 

An Expensive Rug For Less

Madeline Weinrib Blue Brook Rug

Madeline Weinrib Blue Brook Rug 8' x 10' = $3,000 As an alternative:

Overstock's Handmade Luna Moroccan Rug 7'6" x 9'" = $378.24 Also in gray, green, brown and gold

A Walk On The Wild Side

I finally checked one thing off my to-do list. I bought these chairs online for cheap, and I believed the reviews which seems to be a mistake. Because when they arrived the quality was, to my mind, just not there. I called to send them back, and lo and behold they would give me a discount to keep them. OK. They were cheap when I bought them, now they're really cheap.

We had super comfy dining room chairs before. Lots of cushioning, but they sat very low and they were upholstered to match the salmon armed dining chairs. This was OK in a house where the dining room was separate from the other rooms and other colors. But now, with an open floor plan, the striped green, yellow and pink chairs were just too much conflict with the rest of the furnishings. The old chairs have found a new home with my daughter, which provided the opportunity to buy new ones. Yay! But then, not so much.

These are the chairs we received.

The generic beige seating had to go. I have black bar stools next to the dining room table, so my thought was to paint these chairs black and change the seat fabric to blend in better with the rest of the furnishings.

I bought some zebra print chenille fabric that I had been lusting for from Hancock Fabrics, using all the discounts and coupons of course. Covered them in batting so that they made nice little bundles of, hopefully, cushy seats.

Laid them out on my daring zebra fabric.

Only to realize I was about 6" short of sufficient fabric to reach around the backs for stapling. Aargh. Back to Hancock's for more fabric. What's the saying - penny smart, pound foolish? I scrimped just a scotsh too much and ended up paying even more for it. Even with coupons this is not the cheapest fabric. Retail is $36/yard but it's usually 50% off.

With plenty of fabric the cushions were ready for covering and final stapling. And here is the result.

I was playing with the leftover fabric to see how it would look as a runner. Since the chairs match the table, I don't think they're going to get painted. I was trying to tie in the salmon chairs, which we love but that color isn't repeated anywhere in the house, and the black bar stools with rush seats.

I think it looks better, don't you?