09 February 2012

Upcycled Hanging Lamp Tutorial

This is my first attempt at writing a tutorial, so forgive my horrible pictures.

I have been needing extra task lighting for my craft closet, since well, it's in a closet. Closets don't usually have lights in them, not closets where I come from, anyway. So I knew I had to hunker down and make a lamp. And here is what I came up with:


Yes, dear readers, I made a mason jar into a lamp. I know you've probably seen these around, and I have too. And I wanted to make one. Now, I have to tell you now, my husband did help me. But that's only because he doesn't trust me with his power tools. But after this process, maybe I shouldn't trust him with power tools, either (just kidding).

For this lamp, I used only items that we had in the house - I didn't have to go get anything! I started with a lamp I got from Ikea that had broken and a clean mason jar.



1. Unscrew the thing you put the light bulb in out from the lamp.
2. Trace the size of the hole onto the mason jar lid.
3. Drill a hole in the mason jar lid. (as you can see, it didn't turn out so well. But this was the only lid of that size that we had, so I just had to go with it.) This is the part that Jeff did. It was really difficult to do this part, since the lid would just spin with the circle drill thing. So we used clamps to hold it down, so it wouldn't move. That's why the lid is not flat anymore.


4. Put the mason jar lid parts together. Be careful that you don't cut your finger! I had to re-flatten the lid a bit, since it was sort of mangled once Jeff was done with drilling a hole into it. Stick the thing you put the light into through the hole of the mason jar lid.
5. In my case, I had something else to screw onto the first thing from the other side - to keep it secure.
6. Put the light bulb into the thing - fluorescent all the way, baby!


7. Put the light thing into the mason jar and close the lid.
8. Presto! You have made your lamp!
9. Hang in on the wall. I won't tell you how I hung mine up, you'll only laugh at me. (I used a stapler gun.)

The end!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope this inspires you to try to make your own lamp!

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3 comments:

  1. Shirley,

    That mason jar lamp tutorial is really cool. I am going to have to get it a try sometime!

    I just had to pin it!

    http://pinterest.com/pin/253749760224946089/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shirley,

    That mason jar lamp tutorial is really cool. I am going to have to get it a try sometime!

    I just had to pin it!

    http://pinterest.com/pin/253749760224946089/

    ReplyDelete

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