Wednesday, April 27, 2011

coffee filters; useful and decorative.

i am loving my sunroom nowadays since i painted it with stripes. it's totally cute. however there was still one major problem-o.



yes, it is hard to see in this picture because i forgot to take the before picture. i always forget about that step... i get so excited when i have an idea and i just go for it then about half way through i think, "hmm.. i maybe should have taken a before picture of this..." but i can't help it! i get so excited to get a project started and this is what happens. then i have to search on my computer to see if it might be in the gazillions of pictures i've taken. and this is the result. sorry : )

aaaanyway, the light fixture is basically just a translucent glass square hanging under two light bulbs... fancy. so basically i hated it but i was not about to buy a light fixture for my apartment. i want to love my home as much as the next guy but i do draw the line. it might be far out there and kinda blurry, but it's there and light fixtures are definitely beyond it. so i tried to figure out how to make it better and came up with a plan.

since i have so much sticky laminate hanging around from doing all my cabinets, i took the glass square down and covered it with that. **disclaimer: i do not turn this light on at all really. i mean, hardly ever. so i am not sure how the laminate and everything would do on a hot glass surface under light bulbs. this is not an issue for me since i hate overhead lighting and almost always use lamps. do not blame me if you do this and your fixture catches on fire. : )**



i couldn't get the laminate to go on smoothly but i knew it would be covered anyway, so it doesn't really matter. then i punched the hole in the middle so i could hang it back up later. all i did then was fold coffee filters and hot glue them on. this is the reason for the laminate. i don't own this light obviously, so i didn't want hot glue all over something that doesn't belong to me. i glued all the filters to the paper so *hopefully* i can just peel it off and toss it when we move out. : )

here is the finished product








i think she's pretty darn cute. of course she's no dangly crystal-y chandalier (which i would loooove) but it works for me. i can tolerate it much better now. maybe i will find some dangly crystals and figure out how to hang them from it.......... until then, this little cutie is fine the way she is : )


linking up with the shabby nest's frugal friday!!

4 comments:

  1. wow that is pretty!

    i am so like that too - i get so excited about a project i get halfway thru and forget that i need to take a picture of the before! :) right there with you! :)

    have a great day!!

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  2. That is sooo adorable! What a creative idea. :) I am pretty about about before pictures too, I try very hard to remember though. Lol.

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  3. Do you get nervous that will catch on fire??

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  4. no laura, i already said in the post that i don't often turn on this overhead light. i almost always use lamps instead, so it's not really a concern. that's why i said if anyone else tries it on a fixture they use frequently, don't blame me for fires : )

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