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January 29, 2014 / diy projects

lamps made from vases

I’ve been looking for lamps for my sofa table for a long time. I knew I wanted the lamps to be short because when I sit on the sofa I don’t like to be blinded by the bare bulb glaring at me from under the shade. Also, our television is on the wall in front of the sofa and I didn’t want the lamps to be so tall they’d block the TV when I’m standing in the kitchen or elsewhere. So, when I put away my Christmas decorations these vases sat empty on my fireplace mantle. While I was cleaning the family room yesterday it hit me these vases would make great lamps with the shade I had from the tall buffet lamps I had in storage, A.K.A. the garage. I knew I had a lamp kit in the garage so I went to work. I dug out a masonry drill bit and started to drill the hole for the cord to come thru. Not easy. I thought the masonry bit would blow through the porcelain, but it didn’t. It took about 15 minutes to drill that single hole.

lamp base

Once the hole was drilled I fed the wire up through the lamp to connect the wires to the lamp kit per the directions on the package. It’s super simple. The package has easy to follow picture instructions.

The package instructions didn’t say to tie the wires in a knot but when I took apart an old lamp to use the parts, I noticed that’s how it was done. I thought it was pretty smart. So I did that too. A little extra safety never hurts. Specially when you have gymnastics happening on the sofa just in front of the lamps.

I glued the wood circle to the top of the vase, installed the harp, the bulb, the shade and voila… done. It’s always a thrill to plug-in the lamp and have light. Woo-hoo everytime!

My new lamps! I love them. Now I just need a new sofa table. Maybe just a new top for this one and a new paint job. Who knows. I like the length of this table but that’s about it. It’ll probably end up back on my porch, which is the location for which it was made.

I’m about to either re-upholster or slipcover a tuxedo style sofa I have in the garage for this spot. What kind of sofa table should I use with that? hmm…

January 25, 2014 / my house reno.

vintage looking barn light

I bought this metal barn light a couple years ago for less than five dollars at the hospice thrift store. It’s been sitting in various locations in my garage ever since. I felt like the spot above the kitchen sink would be a perfect fit but it needed to be painted. Plus my kitchen wasn’t ready for it. Still in it’s second stage of transformation… black cabinets, tiny pantry, dark walls. Not at all coastal cottage. It’s only half-way renovated now but, huge improvement from where it was when we bought the house 5 years ago. I’ll do a kitchen post to show the changes soon.

IMG_0482[1] — before: three light halogen fixture over kitchen sink.

kitchen sink light 6 — after: vintage looking metal barn light over kitchen sink.

I still have to paint the ceiling where the old canopy was and touch up the wire that got dinged up during installation. The install was pretty simple. I turned off the power at the breaker, tested the wires for power and went to work uninstalling the halogen fixture.

I just unscrewed the wire nuts on the three connections and removed the old fixture. Then installed the new fixture which was also only three wires. Black to black, white to white and ground to ground(mine was green). It’s that simple. Then I installed the old halogen fixture above the desk in my workroom on the other side of the window above the kitchen sink. There was just an empty junction box there for the past few years. You can see it beyond the barn light in most of the pictures.

kitchen sink light 4 — light fixtures installed looking from my workroom into kitchen.

Here it is from the other side. Messy desktop, untrimmed window and all. Next I think I’m gonna install a chandelier in the girls room. Have you put in any new light fixtures lately?

January 10, 2014 / Uncategorized

Trying this blog thing again.

With the new year at hand and the the cottage renovation coming to a close I’m committing to be a regular blogger.

IMG_0457[1] — new bedroom floor, raised the roof on the bedroom, new windows, new doors leading out on to the new deck. and paint of course. Happy mama coming out of her new tiny house. Just over 500 square feet.

We’re just about finished with the renovation of the cottage on our property for my in-laws. We started in July I think, and yesterday the kitchen sink was connected and the plywood floors are getting a final coat of poly today.

cottage with the siding removed from the bedroom walls.

November 27, 2012 / diy projects, sewing projects

Dining chair slipcovers

I have a “thing” for chairs. All old furniture really, but for some reason I end up with lots of chairs. It’s probably because they’re small enough for me to pick-up and move by myself, and because they’re so easy to transform with a slipcover or new upholstery. At one of my recent family gatherings someone said, “you know you have 31 chairs in your house.” I just nodded and smiled as I was thinking of the others in my garage. I sound like a hoarder but I’m really not. I have a large family and when we get together there could be 30 people at my house. I have two dining room tables, one seats 10 and the other seats 8. When I have people over I’ll often have another table pulled up to my long 10 seat table.

All that to show my new slipcovered dining room chairs. I’ve had the chairs forever. They’re all mismatched and looking very old because they usually sit on my back patio where the Florida weather really takes a toll on them. I’ve been wanting to make slipcovers for a long time but just haven’t done it. Then when I was in the check-out line at Harbor Freight a few weeks ago I spotted drop cloths for $6.99. I picked up a couple to see if they would work. Here’s what I came up with: