Every one of the rooms upstairs as well as the long slanted hallway in our home was fitted with ugly brass “boob” ceiling lights, typical of apartments and rentals. And in a rental, I don’t mind them so much, but in my home, I can’t stand them.
I’ve replaced most of them with new pendants or ceiling lights, but when it came time to makeover the Beachy Guest Room, I couldn’t find what I wanted and in a pinch, decided to just try to cover the boob light with something cute because as much of a DIYer that I am, I am TERRIFIED of working with electrical. It’s probably not that difficult but I’d rather not find out the hard way.
So I purchased a hanging wire planter at the local nursery and DIY’d a cute rope pendant of sorts and loved it!
In the mean time, I had a new ceiling fixture installed in the stairwell, which just happened to be too small… but would work perfectly in the other room, now the dedicated Reading Room. However, now that I’m working with Hunters Alley to makeover and finish decorating the Reading Room, I’m in a pinch again, and haven’t found a replacement for the stairs to swap it with, and so decided to get my DIY on again.
I had randomly purchased a second hanging wire basket last year just in case I wanted to DIY another one and got busy searching my DIY supplies for anything that would fit the decor style I’m going with in the reading room. And this is what I came up with.
I have to say, I kind of love it. It has a retro, bohemian, vibe with a macrame feel and the wooden balls remind me of the Eames coat rack. However, the ivory yarn ends coming through the middle kind of also look like spaghetti, so I call it my Spaghetti and Meatballs pendant lamp. But adding the feathers at the ends helped that a LOT.
If you wanted, you could dip dye the yarn to get a really cool ombre effect, or just buy a different color yarn and/or use multiple colors {how cute!!}.
I always think I’m going to paint the brass fixtures white as well, but never get around to it and since the brass doesn’t really bother me, I’ve left it again. But a quick coat of white {or any color}, even just around the border, would be cute.
Here’s What I Used…
* Hanging wire planter basket
* Yarn… an entire spool/whatever you call a ball of yarn, you’re gonna need most of it
* Wooden craft beads… assorted sizes and colors
* Feathers {I had left over from my JuJu Hat DIY wall art}
* Three screw hooks
* Scissors
Here’s How I Did It…
* Remove all hanging chains from wire planter basket.
* Cut yarn to desired length. Keep in mind how long you want it to hang down the center/bottom. You can always cut away, but you can’t add. Measure each doubled.
* I used about 8 strings of yarn per beaded section and 6-7 on the blank sections.
* Create a slip-knot {I think that’s what it’s called?} by folding your long yarn in half, wrapping the ends through the loop and around the edge of the basket and let hang. Work your way all the way around the basket making sure your knots all face the same direction.
* On every other section, I strung random beads in assorted colors {that match the room decor} and in assorted sizes and locations on the yarn, and knotted the ends to keep them in place. I used a bead reamer to jam the yarn through the beads, which made some of the yarn a bit tethered, but I don’t mind the look.
* Remove glass and extra hardware from the existing ceiling fixture.
* Hold your basket up to your ceiling and mark where your hooks will go. They’re pretty easy to screw right into the ceiling but a drill will help start a hole. The basket is very light, so most likely, you won’t need any more support.
* ALSO NOTE: SWAP YOUR LIGHT BULB FOR AN ECO FRIENDLY CFL ONE INSTEAD {for various reasons} BUT ALSO BECAUSE THEY DON’T GET AS HOT AND YOU WON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT FIRES… although, the basket hangs far enough from mine, but just to be safe.
* Hang your basket with long yarn strands up and set in place.
* Beginning with the beaded sections first, I swept the yarn strands under the bottom circle, then back up and through the center of the yarn section to hang down. The sections that aren’t beaded happened to be shorter {because oops, I cut them too short} but it worked out and I simply pulled them through the wires and down the center without looping them back through.
* Carefully pull out and adjust your yarn threads and beaded sections to “blouse out” a bit all the way around to your liking.
* I tied random feathers to random strings to finish the bottom, but you can add a few beads to this section if you like as well. I liked that they were all different lengths, adding to the bohemian vibe, but you can also choose to cut them blunt if you prefer.
And… Voila!
A brand new, unique and one of a kind ceiling pendant without any rewiring! I can’t wait to finish up the Reading Room decor this weekend and share it with you next week! It’s starting to look really cute!
Have Fun!
* Find all my DIYs here
* Find my DIY Rope Ceiling Fixture in the Beachy Guest Room
