Coffee Can DIY Pendant Lamp

Feb. 16

The tiny dining area in my new condo that's squeezed between the kitchen and living room doesn't have overhead or pendant lighting in it. But since I'm not buying anything for my home I couldn't go out and purchase a lamp. Oh man, the designer in me is feeling stressed. Ha.

What to do? DIY a pendant lamp from something repurposed, of course.

I hung an IKEA rope light which I had in my toolbox (at $6 bucks a pop they are affordable and handy to have on hand) from a cup hook in the ceiling and then went about DIY'ing a shade.

A coffee can worked perfectly - I used tin snips to cut a hole in the top, then I simply wrapped some gray felt that I had leftover from recovering my dining chairs (see this chair recovering post) around the outside. The material is flush at the bottom and wrapped up a little over the top. The trusty glue gun did the trick once again.

I think it looks very chic hanging in front of the silver mirror over the console table. At a price of $6 (plus a little bit of fabric if you don't have any already), this little pendant lamp is better than a store-bought lamp any day, don't you think?

BONUS:

Well, of course, I had the leftover lid from the coffee can and just enough felt for a second project, so I couldn't let it go to waste! My laptop sits on the side table under the pendant, so I created a mousepad from the lid.