Simply Homemade: Craft a Peacock Lamp Shade

Christmas does not have to break the bank. In fact, it shouldn’t. Going into debt or spending more than you should is no way to show people you care about them. That’s why I began this Simply Homemade series. I wanted to release you from the obligation to spend too much by coming up with some creative gift alternatives you can make yourself.

Every single idea I’ve shown you so far can be made in very little time and requires no special talent, fancy equipment, or complicated directions. They’re just simple.

Today’s idea is no exception.

How to Craft a Peacock Lamp Shade

This project is so simple, you really don’t need a tutorial for it.

I purchased a couple of accent lamps at a home store for under $10 each. They are pretty enough, but the lamp shades are kind of eh. Certainly, they wouldn’t make a very memorable gift, not with vanilla lamp shades that aren’t special at all.

Fortunately, it takes very little effort to transform a boring lampshade into something one-of-a-kind. All you need is a bit of ribbon, a peacock feather, and an interesting jewelry finding. If you don’t have peacocks running around your yard, you can order feathers here.

Pre-embellishment

A dear friend of our family gave me a bunch of peacock feathers a few years ago. She collected them from the peacocks that roam about her mother’s property on Whidbey Island, Washington. Every year, the birds molt, and she goes about picking up the long, jeweled plumes because they are too beautiful to leave out in the misty rain.

That’s one of her feathers in the picture above. You’d better believe I moved those babies all the way from Washington to Texas this summer, even when the packers looked at me funny and none of them could find a box the right size.

Using fabric glue, I wrapped the ribbon around the top of the shade, being sure to start and end on the seam that was already there (neatness counts). I tried to use as little glue as possible because my ribbon is sheer and I didn’t want globs of glue to show.

The ribbon was a bit too sheer for me, so I wound it around a couple times, secured it with the clip, and let the glue dry.

Then I created a bow, ran the shaft of feather through it, arranged it the way I wanted, and secured the whole thing with a jewelry finding and some hot glue. The jewelry finding is important because it hides and holds the feather in place, but you could use anything you like, from a button to an old key. I just happened to have a couple of those faceted gems leftover from another project (besides, I kinda liked the added bling).

That’s all there is to it.

I love how this lamp looks when it is off or on. When the lamp is off, the peacock feather adds a splash of sophisticated color.

Peacock lamp shade OFF

When the lamp is on, the peacock feather looks like a pencil sketch.

Peacock Lamp Shade ON

I made a pair of these with slightly different bases to give away.

But for now, they’re adding a little light around the corners of my rooms. I love having little pools of light in unexpected places around my home. Don’t you want to walk into a room where a cozy light is shining?

That’s what makes this gift so great. Most people like light, and in the winter, we never quite get enough of it. Give one or two hand-finished lamps and it’s sure to be appreciated.

Another project is coming right up! Stay tuned for another simply homemade idea tomorrow.

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Red Handed (Or, What I Stole from Pottery Barn, Part 2)

Yesterday, I confessed to all of you how my secret adoration for Pottery Barn led me down a path of destruction. At first, it was simple coveting. All I really wanted was to have a mossy fireplace in my bedroom, with twinkling white lights on the mantle and a miniature sawhorse by my bed.

I thought it was perfectly normal. I mean, what warm-blooded girl doesn’t want a miniature sawhorse by her bed?

Most of my coveting was contained to catalog perusal and an occasional foray into an actual store. However, I usually left faster than I came because I felt like I had the words, “Doesn’t Own a Single Tasting Plate” emblazoned on my forehead, and people were staring.

But it all changed the day I saw this chandelier:

At $499, it was about $499 over budget, but I had to have it.

So I decided to steal Pottery Barn’s eclectic hand-blown-glass idea right out from under them. I made one of my own.

See that light? I totally stole it from Pottery Barn.

Now, I will be the first to admit that the Pottery Barn chandelier is way cooler than my knock-off. But a nearly $500 difference in cost goes a long way in making me feel better about my project. Every time I start to think it doesn’t look as good as the catalog version, I just whisper, “That’s a $500 chandelier you just made out of juice cups,” and I smile.

The first thing I did was gather a collection of glassware since Santa has yet to bring me a 2,500 degree furnace and a blowpipe. Clearly, glassblowing was out of the question. That meant I had to give up the mottled look of the glass in the chandelier I loved.

Score one for Pottery Barn.

However, I didn’t really need to blow glass because I already had an eclectic collection of glassware thanks to my children’s innate ability to break any cups that match.

Also, I had already decided to make mercury glass pendants instead of trying to replicate wavy blown glass. Mercury glass has interesting color variations and a mottled look, but it has the added benefit of being metallic, which I wanted in my chandelier because it was going to be part of my ongoing master bedroom design. Our master bedroom has deep gray walls, and we can’t paint them. The silver of the mercury glass would be a perfect accent.

Score one for ME!

I searched the cupboards for glasses with curvy sides and rims around the tops to replicate the look of the Pottery Barn pendants. Cheap glass vases worked well too, as did glass storage jars (the kind that have a rubber seal and separate glass lid) because they have a nice, thick rim.

I saved the glass lids from the storage jars and even purchased a few half-round glass votive candle holders. You’ll see why in a minute.

In order to create the mercury glass look, I purchased a can of Krylon Mirror spray paint. It’s exactly the same stuff as this:

It is expensive, especially since you only get 6 oz. per can. But, I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby to get it a bit cheaper. Happily, one can lasted the entire project. Whew!

Making mercury glass is super easy. Simply collect your glassware and take it outside. Be sure to remove the rubber seals from around any glass lids. You don’t need to wash the glass first unless it is visibly dirty. Then, spray each piece very lightly with water on the inside only. Don’t overdo it–you want just a very light mist so little droplets form. In fact, it’s a good idea to shake the jar after you’ve sprayed it so the droplets disperse and don’t run.

After you’ve done this, spray a very light coat of mirror spray paint on the inside only of each jar or glass piece. Just stick the can right in the jar and spray a light coat. The spray paint traps the water underneath, creating interesting bubbles, runs, and color variations, just like real mercury glass.

Light coats of spray paint work best. Otherwise, the silver runs. If this happens, don’t worry. Just roll the paint around in the jar to spread it out as evenly as possible. Then, add another coat later on to make the run less visible.

Let your jars dry in the sun between coats, and then repeat the steps until you like the look of your jars. Hold them up to the light and take a good look at them. Now is the time to add coats if you don’t love it! Do the insides of the lids and the votive holders as well, if you have them.

Let everything dry completely. You now have mercury glass!

“Mom? Where are all the cups?”
Seriously? I’m working here.

Using a hot glue gun, I attached the lids to the bottoms of the cups and jars. I tried lots of other kinds of glue, including toxic “industrial strength” stuff, but it just didn’t hold. Hot glue worked the best.

I did not have enough lids for all of my glass pieces, but that was okay. I left some plain and attached the glass votive holders to others. Adding these extra glass pieces transformed the look of the cups and jars. They didn’t look as much like cups and jars any more, but began to look more and more like the pendants I was trying to steal.

The transformation begins

Once the glassware was painted and assembled, it was time to attach electrical cord to hang them by. You can get electrical cord from a place like Home Depot or from your children’s annoying electric toys. Either way, it is not expensive.

You could also use ribbon or cording, but I wanted the chandelier to look like it could actually work, even though I had no way of electrifying the thing.

I strung the electrical wire through metal jewelry findings like this and secured the ends with excessive amounts of hot glue.These were attached to the pendants with even more glue. I did not want them coming loose. They were going to be hanging over my sleeping head, after all. Now that the pendants were ready, it was time to attach them to a board. My husband rustled up a piece of Hemlock and cut the 1×4 to about 2 1/2 feet long. I stained it a dark espresso color, added a coat of polyurethane, and drilled holes to string the electrical cord through so I could attach them.

Using these handy little clips to hold the pendants, I arranged them the way I wanted by suspending the board between two chairs and fiddling with the design until I liked it.

The excess electrical wire was trimmed and held down as flat as possible into more globs of hot glue. Those babies aren’t going anywhere.

Now, I really wanted my chandelier to light up, even though I couldn’t actually add electricity to it. So I ordered some remote control LED votive candles. Only, they didn’t come in time. I had to go to the store to get some cheap LED votive candles just for this post. See?

I stuck one in each pendant using Velcro dots to hold them in place.

When everything was done, we hung the chandelier up in the cove that holds our bed. I’m working on the pillow thing. Don’t look at that yet.

It may not be Pottery-Barn-perfect, but my chandelier also didn’t cost Pottery Barn money. The entire project cost about $30, including the back-up set of candles.

And even though it didn’t come from the store, my version of the Paxton Glass Light Pendant makes me feel like I’ve gotten a little bit closer to living the Pottery Barn Land dream.

Now I just have to figure out how to get moss to grow on my fireplace.

What I Stole from Pottery Barn

I have a little love affair with Pottery Barn. Every time a catalog arrives in the mail, I flip through the pages looking for a way to crawl in.

Who wouldn’t want to live there? It’s a magical land where throw pillows always stay perfectly askew and people sip bottled water that cost more than my first car.

In Pottery Barn Land, every window has a view and you can hang a chandelier made out of antlers and no one calls you a redneck because you didn’t shoot the buck yourself.

“I couldn’t decide which rug to get so I got them both,” said no real wife ever.

Of course, no one in Pottery Barn Land has time to shoot a deer himself because everyone is too busy covering books in matching white paper and shopping for beige like it’s a noun.

Let’s not get too crazy with the color on those throw pillows, people.

In Pottery Barn land, children named Ashton and Brooklyn paint quietly at kid-sized tables perched over $1500 hand-knotted chevron rugs. They don’t even need smocks because Pottery Barn children have been taught to be careful with their cashmere.

Bless their little hearts.

Whenever Chess Club lets out early, Ashton and Brooklyn invite a group of ethnically diverse friends over to climb trees. You know, the trees that grow up inside their playroom.

“Outdoor trees are so yesterday, Ashton.”

However, Pottery Barn kids don’t climb trees, even the ones growing right up in front of their noses, and that’s a crying shame.

But I still want to live there.

It’s just too bad the exchange rate between The Real World and Pottery Barn Land is unfavorable. My dollar is worth so little there, I can’t even afford to live on the outskirts of town where oddly-sized pillow shams and last season’s Christmas ornaments are marked down to near-Target prices.

I have had to reconcile myself to a life of vicarious Pottery Barn living by means of catalog ogling.

But then, I saw this picture:

Don’t get distracted by the sieve on the wall–they had a design intern working that day–and check out that amazing chandelier!

You want a closer look. I understand.

Look at those gorgeous hand-blown glass pendants in eclectic shapes and sizes! Look at the mottled glass and non-energy efficient light bulbs! I had to have it. But at $500, there was no way that chandelier was going to get into my house.

Unless I stole it.

At first, I recoiled from the idea. But then, a plan begin to form in my little thieving brain and I knew what I had to do.

I had to steal that chandelier, and I had the perfect idea of just how to do it.

But wait! I can’t share all my secrets in one day. Come back tomorrow and catch me red-handed! I will show you exactly what I stole from Pottery Barn, and how you can steal it too!