Rustic Lantern Transformation

I have a bit of an obsession ....  I LOVE transforming items from their intended purpose - into something completely different!!  

I can will look at a wire trash can and think,  this would be so cool as a light..  "I would just need flip it upside down and drill a hole in it.  I will need a light to hang in the middle and then Voila!  I have a new light!

I just see it...

That's one of the reasons I started this blog, was to help inspire others to see the diamond in the rough...  And to create their own decor using their imaginations and VERY LITTLE cash!!

Which can translate into a One Of A Kind piece!

Here is a (terrible) pic of my old hallway lights..  Another GOLD light - shocker!!  There were actually two of these awful lights on my main floor.

 I have always had a hard time going to a lighting store and looking around and thinking WOW that is the light I have To Have!  I just never like what I see - unless it is like $1000 and in the Restoration Hardware catalog - and that's just NOT gonna fly!!

I also DON'T like having things - that "Everyone Else" has.  I like being DIFFERENT!  ☺️. So having unique stuff in my home FITS me...  (It just does)..

So, after a year and a half of looking and looking for the perfect fixtures for my hallways, I was at Hobby Lobby and came across this rustic lantern.  It is just a lantern that you would put a candle in and set it on the floor.  I just fell in love with it immediately.  I thought THIS is IT!  This would look awesome in my hallway!  FINALLY!

Oh - I want to mention that I got this on sale for 50% off - so it was only $28!!  BOOM!!

BUT, how am I going to do this...???

I first started by taking this hideous light down...  (DO NOT FORGET TO TURN OFF THE BREAKER IN THE FUSE BOX FIRST)!!!  

After I got it down, I started examining it and realized it was just held together by screws...  SO I got my screwdriver out and started unscrewing the fixture...  I got the glass off of it and when I did that, I realized that I could just "dangle" it down into the lantern.  And that I did not need to purchase a NEW light to hang down inside it - SCORE!!

So I got my handy hubby and his ENGINEER-BRAIN to help me make this work!!  He told me it was do-able, so I went to work painting it!!

Went to my go-to spray paint Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze....  and painted the chain, the base of the light and the cap.  (Don't forget to tape off the wires and where the light bulbs go.)

We unscrewed one side of the lanterns rope and looped it through the large EYE screw that I purchased at Lowes.   Once we got the rope through the EYE screw, (which we had to take the screw off the lantern to do) we made a large knot....  AND before we we tightened it, we intertwined the light and chain through the knot.

***I wanted to add, that I replaced the white plastic candle columns with new ones that I bought in a 2 pack from Lowes.  I measured them and we cut them very gently with a fine tooth mini saw.  I want to ENFORCE this, DO NOT USE a compound mitre saw to cut plastic, or anything with quick heavy force!!!  It will crack, explode, etc...  I learned this the hard way!!!!

My husband then got up on the ladder and hung it up.

I LOVE the rustic look and the fact that no-one else has a light like this.  I also love that this entire fixture only cost me around $40 - total!  Since I used the existing light I already had, a can of paint I already had and a pack of new plastic candle covers (which you get in the lighting section of Lowes).  So for both fixtures I spent $80!  You CANNOT buy a SINGLE light for that!

You can make lights out of about ANYTHING!!  Seriously!  I have found that out by just experimenting with items I bring home...

***If you do not have any experience with installing lighting - enlist the help of someone that knows what they are doing...    Fires and electric shock are NO JOKE!  Luckily Mr. Not too Shabby knows how to do pretty much everything around the house!

Do you have a project where you have used an unconventional item for something else like this one?  If so, post below in the comments!  I would love to see it!  Help inspire me and other readers who love chic decor, but have a shabby budget...  

Check out my next post...  On how I turned a huge garage lantern into a cool bathroom light fixture for $6!  And re-decorated my whole bathroom for about $100!  Faucets, fixtures, decor and all!

DIY Makeshift Mudroom

I don't know about you.....  But my kids bring home a lot of "stuff"!!!  The amount of "stuff" they bring home from school is mind blowing!!!  Even overwhelming!!  So after a month of stacking papers here, and putting papers there...  And trying to get the kids out the door in the mornings with all their "stuff"  I knew I needed a better system!

I friend of mine gave me the idea to make the area below into a mudroom a year before it was converted to this - Awesome Organized Mommy Station!!  I thought she was crazy - but she had the vision - WAY before me!  So kudos to you Amy!!  Now the mornings are a breeze - and all of their "stuff" is kept together!  I have space for jackets, backpacks, shoes, lunchboxes, papers and even hats and gloves!  ALL IN ONE PLACE!!!!  HUGE!!!

If you have kids and do not have an area like this - and your mornings are as CRAZY as mine were - then you are in luck!!!  I am going to help you get organized and maybe not eliminate, but cut down on the mayhem in the mornings!!!

Here is what my hallway between my kitchen and dining room looked like before...  Plain, boring and most importantly UNDERUTILIZED!!!  There was a lot of space here to turn into my Awesome Organized Mommy Station!!! Or as most people call them - A Mudroom....  

I have already hung my laser level in the pic.  A MUST HAVE if you plan on being a DIYer!

So, I knew I wanted a coat rack of some kind!  AND of course, it had to be as inexpensive as possible!!!  So I went to Hobby Lobby to see what they had....  I really wasn't that impressed with what they had, so I went to my next source of inspiration...  The Antique mall!  

***Before starting a project, get inspired!  Find pictures on the Internet, or magazines with items you LOVE....  Then head out and start looking around for what you loved and your imagination will take you places you didn't even know existed!!

As I was walking up the aisles, I came across a pair of reclaimed pieces of wood.  They were both about 6ft long and had some glorious age on them!!  BUT, the guy wanted $10 each for the wood!  I was like, "YOU ARE NUTS"!  For an old piece of wood!!!!????  As I stood there talking to him about his wood, heehee....  He told me that the pieces were from an old barn in Kentucky!!  Well, I graduated from UK and so did my husband - AND my husband is from Kentucky!  So I fell in love with his wood - even more!!!

 I then noticed the bench in the 1st pic..  It was narrow and almost as long as the pieces of wood! He wanted $50, AND it was from KY as well!  I knew I had to have it...  So we went back and forth and I got him down to $35!  And I got both pieces of wood for $7.....  Sold!!!  ($42 the bench and 2 pieces of 6ft wood)

So now I have the wood I need for my coat rack and a bench to go under it!!  I am pretty much set!! So I head back to Hobby Lobby and their hooks are 50% off!!  So I get 4 hooks, each for $3!

Cost of materials thus far:

Wood - $7.00

Bench - $35.00

Hooks - $12

So to make the coat rack - I needed to drill my coat hooks into the wood...  OMG!!  I am terrible at math!  It is so bad - I stood there measuring and placing the hooks for about 45 minutes, trying to get them centered!!  I finally gave up and just eye-balled it!  Ahhhh, much easier!!  Now, once you have the hooks into the board....  You are going to have to hang it!  Keep in mind...  These book bags are heavy!!!!  You will need to drill this sucker into the STUDS!!!  I drilled mine into 3 studs!  If you have never done this before, you will need a stud finder!  No this isn't a tool to find you a hot young man to do this for you.... ;)  This is a tool to find your studs in the wall...  And get your laser level..  To make sure you hang it level...   You can do this!!  But if your stud finder does find you a young hot man to do this for you - BY ALL MEANS!  Let him!!  My stud was out of town!!  LOL

Now for the finishing touches.  I got the Galvanized steel pails at Home Depot for about $12 each!  They go with my Rustic/Industrial look and I just love them!  I got my hot glue gun out and glued some sissle around the top to give it a little more character.  I got the wire basket at Marshall's for about $8 and then the file holder rack at Home Goods for around $20.  This comes in VERY HANDY with all that paper work that comes home!!  It was more than I wanted to spend, but with the vintage wire racks being to 'IN' right now - this was a steal!  I then got the mini chalk board tags at World Market.  

To write the boys names on the chalk board tags, I used a paint pen.  I am no good at that "chalk lettering" and with the traffic in that hallway - I figured this was the best solution.  My other addition is the oar seen here in this picture.  I found this at an estate sale.  It was just a plain piece of reclaimed wood - sawed into the shape of an oar that I got for $10!.  So I used painters tape and painted a few lines on it and added the number "5" to it.  To get the 'vintage' appearance, I just lightly rolled the roller over the board to give it a weathered appearance.  

 

And Voila!  A makeshift Mudroom!  For a total cost of about $100!  You know how I love to do my projects on the cheap!!  

I wanted to add my picture of inspiration that I used to develop this project:

I loved this!  But they wanted $60 just for 1 oar!! and I almost bought it!  But couldn't bring myself to do it... And so I began looking for items to make my own.  Doing projects on your own isn't the fastest way to get things done!  You have to get creative to find things that will work AND for me - also to stay on budget!!  But it is always rewarding to me to know that I did something all by myself! It may not look like the picture from Pottery Barn exactly, but close enough for me to LOVE my new 'Mudroom'.  

Feel free to ask any questions below and leave any feedback.  Thanks!