why not diy? : wednesday

 i've had a vision in my head for months. it involved burlap (with which i happen to be currently obsessed), some black electrical cord, big-round-clear-glass light bulbs, and a piece of plywood. don't ask how...it just came to me.

**disclaimer...all the photos were taken on iPhone4...so don't judge!

we are currently renting our home, and over the dining room table is (was) a not so fabulous faux brass chandelier. you know the ones...the little flame tip bulbs, very formal looking...sooo not me. i've been wanting to change it out since we moved in - AND put whatever we replaced it with on a dimmer switch - but hadn't been able to find anything i loved. (if i don't love something, i usually won't spend money on it. mom taught me that one!) somehow i envisioned an uber unique bare-bulb, burlap covered, anthropologie-ish light fixture. Z couldn't see it very clearly in his head, but thankfully he trusted me! so on Saturday we headed to Home Depot to gather supplies and attempt the impossible! (ok, not really impossible, but that sounded much more dramatic!)

we (by "we" i mean z) started with changing the dining room light switch over to a dimmer...it was a success! in other words...he didn't electrocute himself, and when we turned it on, it worked the first time! ta-da!

then, he cut  piece of plywood into a circle for me (one of the items we bought at home depot was a jigsaw blade...but of course it was the wrong one...so its a rough circle)

i marked where i wanted holes drilled from which the bulbs would hang(obviously, i didn't like the first placement..oops!)

i had some burlap lying around from a couple of other projects, and cut a piece a couple inches wider than the wood in the shape of a circle.

hot glue is my friend! (well, that is until i burn myself on the metal part of the gun...then i curse it.) i grabbed my handy-dandy hot glue gun, and started a-gluin'. i glued little sections of the burlap to the wood, making it a little "poofy" as i went to add some character. then i put slits in the burlap where the cords were going to pull through the holes.

z cut the ends off the extension cords and cut them to my desired lengths (somewhere between 2-3ft) into 5 pieces he stripped the ends so we could wire them the way we wanted.  one end of each cord was threaded through metal ring on the plastic sockets and tightened in. i wrapped the whole socket, and part of the cord in electrical tape...

they were pulled through the burlap-covered plywood holes, and up to meet in the middle all the white were twisted together, same with all the blacks.

when we took the brass-ish fixture down from the ceiling it obviously left a big hole so we bought another dreadful gold-ish plate to cover it, but spray painted it cream so it blends with the ceiling.

somehow, we managed get all 5 cords up through the hole, and attached to the wires in the ceiling. (all while the electricity was off, of course!) we attached the new "chandelier" to the brace with some rustic looking rope, and screwed in the fabulous round bulbs!










and viola! what do you think?

a bit more fitting with the vintage door behind it! (it hangs straight now, and the door is in the opposite corner.)


we may add a few more bulbs and wires, but not wire them in so they won't be lit... who knows! :)


overall, i'm pretty please with the outcome! especially something that started in my head!