Pendant Light from a Table Lamp

© Stephie McCarthy

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We worked for hours on ideas to replace the light fixture on our gingerbread porch.

©StephieMcCarthy

Here's our original design we think you will love!

Our new light cost less that $20 and we think you'll agree, it's lovely … but it's also a cool upcycle of a thrift shop table lamp.

More beautiful than we imagined it would be!

Even cooler! You'll never look at table lamps the same way again.

Above is how the ceiling looked 'before.' We've installed our new lamp to center with the door.

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MAKING THE PENDANT

Ideally, a light-weight lamp with the wire coming from the bottom which is easier to fish through the base and the ceiling, will work best.

Wooden disks from HobbyLobby, one 9" and two 10" make the base.

We stained the disks to match the lamp and added just a touch of gold metallic paint around the edge.

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Painting of the base in progress.

Clamp the base disks together and drill a hole large enough to fish the plug through. Use strong glue to attach the disks together, and to attach the lamp to the disks.

The wide base will cover any holes you have for fishing the wire through the ceiling. You may need special bolts if you do not have lumber to attach your base inside your ceiling.

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MAKING THE SHADE

We found our pierced metal shade at a church rummage sale for just three dollars. We used it upside-down to resemble pierced hanging lamps from import stores.

Basket shades and shades with holes as part of the design will be the easiest to hang.

Or … … you can attach any shade using pretty bull dog clips.

Our lamp chain started life as chain belts from eBay. We subdued the shine with a light spray of antique gold.

At each end of the chain are 'lobster claw' clasps.

Looping the chain through the shade, we fastened the chain to itself using these clasps.

We used a brass clamp from a lamp parts company on eBay to hang our shade. We modified the clamp by cutting through one side with metal snips to fit around our lamp. If your lamp comes apart, you may not need to make this cut.

Brass Lamp Clamp for Globe Shade

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ADDING CRYSTALS

Chandelier crystals can be purchased á la carte on line.

You can buy exactly what you want and need.

Our crystal beads arrived on nylon thread which we left in place and reinforced with strands of jewelry wire.

We used double wires to attach the crystal drops too. The lamp will be exposed to humidity. We want it to be strong.

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INSTALLING THE PENDANT

We recommend using scaffolding when working on a ceiling. We found our scaffold on CraigsList for $300 and it takes just 5 minutes to assemble. Ceiling work can be tricky. Work on ceilings at your own risk!

We drilled a hole in the ceiling with our Bosch drill bit. We fished the wire into the hole and nailed the base of our lamp to the cross beam using a Senco nailer.

It's looking great already!

Now for the shade. The ends of each chain were attached to the three adjustments screws that are on the clamp at the top.

Here's another view of the clamp purchased from eBay with the three screws where our chains will be attached.

As a final touch, we made a sturdy wire brace inside the shade stretching from one side, around the lamp, to the other side so that the hanging shade will not move in the wind.

There's still much to do on this sweet porch in the future, but with the new ceiling and lamp in place, we feel like we've arrived at a very good place.