DIY Geo Pendant Light + Our Lovely Room Pt II

Greetings, blog world! 

Collin here!  

For those of you who don't know, I'm Karsyn's husband *insert waving hand emoji*. I know what you're thinking...

"Wait, what?!"

But yes, it's really me! My first official post on BlissBranch! 

As in Karsyn's recent post regarding our bedroom, we're excited to announce a partnership with InteriorCrowd (or @interiorcrowd on social media), an online interior design company that has connected us with a talented interior designer from across the world. Together, we have worked with her to curate a bedroom that would be perfect for the two of us, our budget, and our love for DIY and creativity!

The process has been rather amazing, with our designer Gesthimani in Greece, we were able to keep up with each other via the InteriorCrowd dashboard, and we also sent each other photos via email. I was blown away by her design technology---she was sending me incredible 3D replicas of my bedroom to scale, making the process easy to visualize and make changes when needed.

^Here's the F I N A L  D E S I G N! ^

We haven't made a ton of progress, but our curtains and some other goodies arrived in the mail today. It was such a blessing being able to just kind of sit back while someone else called the decorative shots---especially when that someone allows you to work with shelves you already have, make your own fixtures, and ultimately keep you happy!

Our current progress! Can't wait to see everything together!

As a gift to you, InteriorCrowd is offering an exclusive deal. Go to www.interiorcrowd.com to get started with a style profile and use promo code 'ickarsyn' to get 35% off the regular design price of $299!

Cool, right? 

We discussed multiple ceiling/light treatment options with the designer, and after seeing her ideas, I decided to make our own  from an existing old lamp that was destined for GoodWill, and a decorative wire cage from Target. 

So basically, I went and grabbed an old, tacky lamp we had sitting around the house (pictured below), took it apart and recycled it's pieces to make this unique fixture. If you don't have an old lamp sitting around, you can find all of the parts to make a lamp in the home light section at HomeDepot or Lowe's --- but that can get unnecessarily pricey when you're capable of finding a suitable lamp at a thrift store for under $5. 

1. I used pliers to take off the lamp shade and cut out the center piece that holds the shade in place.

2. I took that piece of metal and centered it on the wire cage from Target. Once I got it where I wanted it, I wrapped the wire around the basket to secure it.  

Boom! 

. I cut off the male plug end from the lamp cord, pulled out the light socket with the cord still attached, and stripped the ends. *Note, if you're installing this yourself and using a lamp cord like the one below, there will be grooves on one of the rubber shilding of the wire. That one will be your hot wire, the smooth one will be your neutral*.

4. After that, I took the base of the lamp off and drilled two holes in either side of the center hole. *Be sure to measure how far apart the screw holes are in the electrical box you are mounting it too*! 

*When drilling the holes, be sure to put a scrap piece of wood under it as to not damage whatever you are drilling it on because it will take a decent amount of pressure to get through*

5. Take your cord with the light socket and sleeve it through your center hole in your fixture. 

6. Stick the cord through the center hole in your mounting plate and tie a single knot in the cord about the length you want your fixture to be.  

Now, virtually every electrical box is going to use 1" #8-32 machine screws. (Trust me, I used to apprentice as an electrician!) The width is what is important; get whatever length is needed but make sure they are #8-32.

7. Simply wire your hot and neutral wires (Make sure your light switch is off and taped off so no one accidentally sneaks up on you). Then, line up your screws with the holes in the box and

Because my mounting plate was deeper than most, I ran to HomeDepot to get some extra long screws to mount this puppy. A word of advice: if you do have to buy longer screws, take the screw with you to the hardware store and measure how long you'll need it to be. This way, you know exactly what size to get and don't have to take multiple trips from wrong assumptions (like yours truly...).

YOU'RE DONE!

Ta-dah! That's it.

But not before you buy one of those really freaking awesome Edison bulbs to tie it all together!

Cheers,

Collin

All of this was really just me improvising with what I had at home. Get creative and see what you can recycle from an old light fixture or hideous lamp (that you have been wanting to throw out the second story window for a little while...What? Just me?). You can make a pendant light from almost any basket or wire cage you have laying around or can find at a thrift store. Challenge yourself; see what you can find to create something uniquely your own! 

I had so much fun making this, I'm considering doing some sort of DIY every couple of weeks. Would anyone be interested? 

Please feel free to comment any questions!