Drum roll please...I made my own drum lamp

When we purchased our house it had all of its original builder grade materials still in place, including all the builder lights. We thought most of the lights were funny because they were perfect replicas of an upside down mushroom. We tried to replaced the majority as soon as we moved in but others, like the spare bedroom and closets, remained as reminders of what the entire house looked like.
Here is one of the mushroom lights from when we bought:

 I have seen all over the blogging world people making their own drum lamps out of various materials and thought this would be a great idea for our spare bedroom. I was at Habitat for Humanity's restore a while back and they had a beautiful golden chandelier for sale. It kills me to say this but it is just like the one I had donated to Habitat a year ago when we replaced our other lights. So I had to buy back almost the exact same light that I had already donated. Proves that I should not throw anything away...just kidding.

This is what I purchased:

 I easily took it apart by removing a few screws. I donated back to Habitat the beautiful glass cover since all I wanted was the light base.

I taped all the vital parts and ventured off to the garage to paint the gold metal with oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I also spray painted the plastic covers at the base of the bulbs white. I don't think they were suppose to be the horrible tan color.


Once everything was dry, I reassembled the lamp but replaced the glass with a new and inexpensive drum shade I purchased at Walmart.

For those of you wondering how the shade is sitting on the candelier, this is what the top of the drum shade looked like.

The drum shade has a small opening on the top that I threaded the wires through and sat it on top of the chandelier post.

I then reassembled the chandelier the same way it came apart. So the decorative bolt (with the loop attached to the hanging chain) was just screwed back on top of the chandelier post thus securing the shade.

Really easy and not too expensive.

 

 

I purchased the brass chandelier from Habitat for Humanities ReStore for $7.50 (it was on sale for 1/2 the ticketed price) and the drum lamp shade from Walmart for $14. I had the Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint on hand (of course). So the grand total for my home made spare bedroom chandelier was $21.50. Not bad.

I debate whether or not to spice it up a bit with a little ribbon around the top and base of the shade. Or perhaps put some vinyl flowers on the inside of the shade, so when the light it on you see the shapes through. What do you think?

Have you created your own chandelier/lights before by piecing various items together?

Stephanie
Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z