IKEA Hack - Sputnik Chandelier

A while back I stumbled upon a fabulous blog called Little Green Notebook and she was showing off her new office. I immediately fell in love with her chandelier. When I read that it was an IKEA hack, I was shocked. The IKEA Maskros light is all over Pinterest, and she managed to turn it into something gorgeous. Well, last weekend over the Fourth, we were in Denver and decided to stop in IKEA - massive and intense! After Dustin gave me the green light, I purchased the $50 pendant lamp and decided to try the makeover for myself. It was worth it because we love the results!

Her instructions for making the light (she's done it twice and both look great!): Sea Green Sputnik & White Sputnik

When you open the box, there are of course a million pieces - it's IKEA and expected. I spray painted the "arms" of the light with my favorite gold spray paint: Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold. Didn't take long to do (well shouldn't, except I kept running out of spray paint! Not the best idea to rely on cans that you've used before!) and it takes about one and a half cans to cover.

While those were drying, I had to cut the flowers down. I used a cup with a 2.5" opening to trace the circles. Then I used scissors to cut - I tried slicing with a slicer, but it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. After they are cut, you need to glue the white Le Fleur cups onto them. She recommended Fabri-Tac glue and it was awesome.

The cutting and gluing takes the most time - I seriously thought the flowers were never going to end! There are 84 you have to cut down if you get the smaller Maskros light. After I finished gluing, I convinced my wonderful husband to install the light fixture part of the light - love how IKEA has you add the crazy arms after you install the light, makes it so much easier. Of course being in an old house, installing the light wasn't as easy as we had hoped, but after my 9pm Wal-Mart run for longer screws it worked - yay! I think it looks great in the space and it looks really good for a $90 light (light $50, materials $40)!

Adds some great character to our dining room and I'm excited to get rid of the old fixture we had in there before. I love how the white cups look similar to milk glass and the paper flowers shine through. Plus, you all know how much I love gold. I think my first IKEA hack worked out well! I have some lanterns I'll share with you once I get them painted. Alright, it's late so lights out!

Lots of Love,

Lighting Updates

My husband is turning into a lighting install wizard! Since we were painting our living room, stairway and upstairs hallway this weekend, we wanted to update the lighting to finish off the look. I had been on the hunt for a pretty light to hang in our stairway, but lighting can be expensive! After looking around in stores and online, we decided to go out to Lowe's and give that a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by their selection and we found two great lights. They have affordable, good looking options that are definitely worth checking out.

For our hallway, I wanted to get rid of the plain "boob" light (haha my wonderful friend Ashley shared that name with me) and replace it with a classier, fancy light - you know a "boob" with some crystals! :)

Before (sorry these before pictures aren't great, but you get the idea of the look - I keep telling Dustin to take before pictures, but he gets wrapped up in taking things down!):

After:

I looks much classier in our hallway! Next, down the stairs we have the stairway light. It was shiny gold plastic before and I considered painting it, but it was also broken. It was time to move on.

Before:

After:

I'm excited about those new light additions, and decided I should share other light options and swaps that we  have made around the house. A great ceiling light or lamp can add a lot of character to a room!

Dressing Area - between our bedroom and master bath:

I bought this chandelier a couple years ago for my old house and luckily, it's back at Urban Outfitters! It brightens up any space.

Laundry Room:

We seriously had a plate with two light bulbs in here before, so I was ready to add something a little more fun. I saw this lamp shade at World Market and bought the light hanging kit with it. Voila! A $35 ceiling light that looks great for a laundry room.

Office:

You can find more information on my Office Lighting post.

Sunroom:

Replaced an old ceiling fan with this fun light! You can find more information on my Sunroom Striped Ceiling post.

Kitchen:

I adore these MacKenzie Childs lights my kitchen. You can find more information on my Kitchen post.

Lamps around the house:

Have these lamps on either sides of the fireplace. They go great with the chairs I have in there. Lampshade is from World Market and the base was an affordable find from Target.

This is in our living room and was a random score at Home Goods.

Love this quirky little lamp we found in an antique store in Liberal, KS. 

Another great find at Home Goods - I added the ribbons around the top and bottom and the tassel is from Singapore.

You can spend a lot on lighting or a little depending on the look you are going for and your funds. I love a great light, but I love finding them in my price range. Find a great lamp at Home Goods and add your own character like I did above. Need a quick light fix, hang a lamp shade. Then have your random splurges if a light you love goes on sale and you know it's perfect - sun room chandelier, kitchen lights, new stairway chandelier...love them!

Lucky me that my husband learned how to change out lights because we had a lot to replace in this house! I remember after he watched his dad change the kitchen lights (thanks Doug!), he decided to try changing out the dressing room light. We were so excited and proud of ourselves for hanging our own light! No more waiting on someone to help us. It's the little things when you are a homeowner!

The best is when he decides to switch them out when it's dark out, so he needs his nerdy head lamp. Especially good when he also wants to listen to music with his even nerdier headphones:

Photos via me

So proud of himself for figuring out that dang lampshade and not electrocuting himself since I might have accidentally flipped the switch on when I walked in to check things out - oops! I turned it back off right away. Love this guy!

Lots of Love,