Our guest room is the sunniest room in the apartment, bringing warmth and energy to most days. However, when the sun goes down, it's impossible for us to see anything, even with a floor lamp and four small table lamps.
I saw this on light fixture made out of yarn on Pinterest and thought it would be an inexpensive way to put a light in the room, while still meeting our requirements: 1) no drilling into the (recently repaired by the condo owner) ceiling, 2) brighten up the whole room.
I picked up a beach ball at the dollar store, and yarn and fabric stiffener from JoAnn's last week.
As soon as I had a free evening at home, I started wrapping...and wrapping...and wrapping. This took longer than I thought - probably 3-4 hours of wrapping, with a few breaks to watch the So You Think You Can Dance finale. It was also hard to balance on the bowl, especially when it became top-heavy.
I let it dry overnight, and the next day started pushing the eraser side of a pencil in to detach the beach ball from the yarn frame. Which almost worked. The spot that was in the bowl overnight didn't dry, nor did it feel like there was enough fabric stiffener to do the job (lesson learned: more fabric stiffener is better). So I reapplied the fabric stiffener to select spots, using a foam brush, and then hung it up to dry (rather than rest it in a bowl).
Once everything was dry, it was ready to hang. A quick trip to Ikea, for the HEMMA light fixture, bulb and a dimmer switch, and then to Target for some Command hooks, and we were ready to install. Matt used a coat hanger to create a framework inside the string ball, so we could attach the cord to the frame, while I prepped and hung the Command strips in two spots on the ceiling.
We're hoping the Command strips hold our make-shift plug-n-swag light kit. So far, so good!
With the new light, there's a soft warm glow about the room. It's so much brighter in here. We can see all corners of the room!
The whole project cost around $25 (12 for the yarn and fabric stiffener, with coupon, at JoAnn's; 4 for HEMMA fixture, 8 for dimmer switch, 1 for light bulb). Not bad!
Oh, and thought it doesn't warrant an entire post, we also snagged a $20 rug at Ikea for the guest room last time we were there. Daisy loves it, and it's much softer than the 120-year-old original pine floors for our guests to walk on!
What do you think!?
Very cool! I can't wait to visit :).
Posted by: Marty Guenther | 08/14/2011 at 08:47 AM