Lighting DIYs I’d Actually Pay Good Money For

As I mentioned in my stairwell makeover reveal, one of the finishing touches in the hallway/stairwell involves putting in new light fixtures — two in the hallway and one at the top of the stairs. Currently, we’re working with these beauties:

The lighting is a bit of a conundrum because our ceilings are so low that we really can’t have anything other than flushmount. For the hallway light outside the bathroom, for instance, any fixture deeper than 6 inches would not allow the basement door to swing open:

SIX INCHES. That’s very shallow. It makes the luxurious 12 inches we could have for the fixture at the top of the stairs seem positively luxurious.

Anyway, this has meant I’ve been spending a huge amount of time googling and pinteresting around looking for cool light fixtures — I’ve never bought a light fixture before, because as renters we never made that kind of change (though we did tile a kitchen backsplash and install board-and-batten in the hallway, so we weren’t exactly abiding by “leave no trace”). So I was excited to be making this first foray into light buying! But sadly, there just aren’t a huge number of great-looking flushmount options out there. Most of the semi-decent ones I have come across are still deeper than 6 inches. I’ve been getting super jealous of Naomi’s opportunity to have at least a single chandelier in her house (which one will she choose, though?!?).

But this isn’t a post about how boring and ugly flushmount lights are. It’s a post about a bunch of really awesome DIY light projects I came across in the meantime, and am jealously wishing I could make and put in my home. The litmus test I used for picking these was: would I put them in my home even if I had the money for a much more expensive light? (Or, flipping that around, would I pay good money for these even though they’re DIY?) These DIYs stand up even when you remove “cheaper” from the list of qualities.

I have to start with a project by one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah Dorsey of Sarah M. Dorsey Designs. She is insanely creative — she’s always doing completely unpredictable and incredible projects, and her turquoise statement pendant light is no different. Inspired by the Lolita – Shine by SHO (left, below), she created her own using a fluorescent light diffuser and plaster of paris. That does NOT sound like it would yield promising results, and yet look at her final result, on the right below. Can you even tell the different from the original inspiration? The answer is NO. You have to read her tutorial to understand the genius that went into this project. (please pin from original source)

Mandi at Vintage Revivals is another exceedingly talented DIYer who never ceases to impress me with her creative projects. One of her recent ones was a bent arm chandelier (right) made entirely from scratch (well, I guess she didn’t forge the brass herself…). Once again, mind blown. (please pin from original source)

Okay so those ones are kiiiinda intimidating. Here’s an amazing one that I feel like I could actually do from The Hunted Interior — Kristin took a $45 Home Depot light and gave it a much more upscale look with some gold Rub’N’Buff and spray paint. (please pin from original source)

This one would actually work in my hallway, but Sam said he didn’t care for it. I wholeheartedly disagree, but the guy doesn’t express a strong preference very often so when he does I try to respect it.

Here’s a very cool upgrade of a paper lantern light by Allison at the 3 R’s blog using a whole lot of those paper fortune tellers we all used to make as kids. I just want to touch it. (please pin from original source)

And lastly, no blog entry would be complete without some sort of sunburst something. In this case, a clever sunburst ceiling light from Pam at Simple Details are the Difference. Makes me think maybe there could be hope for my current hall lights! (Though I don’t think it would work well in the space, and certainly not for all three lights — but maybe I will try to pull something like this off elsewhere!) (please pin from original source)

So that’s some of what I’ve been pining over in lighting land as I figure out how to work with the constraints of my actual house. If you had an unlimited budget, would you pick any of these DIY versions instead? Which is your favorite?

 (Sharing at A Bowl Full of Lemons and Think and Make Thursdays – and FEATURED at Dwell Beautiful)