I Love Lamp!
First of all, this is my 100th post which is some sort of milestone, so yay! And secondly, I've got another tutorial for a parasol light fixture to share! Today Michael and I were working on getting some light fixtures put up, which has been on my to-do list for a rediculously long time now. Endless gratitude for Michael making me get my butt in gear! So he helped me hang this nifty lotus flower-shaped lamp from Ikea over my sewing table. (I've always wanted one!) I finally have enough light to see what I'm doing, so maybe I'll actually start making things again!
So anywho, on to the tutroial...
Remember my idea for turning a parasol into a light fixture? Well with Michael's help I finally did it! We had a lot of technical issues to work out, so hopefully if anyone out there wants to make one this tutorial should save you a lot of time.
As far as materials, you only need a hacksaw, a parasol, and some wire.
Start by cutting the handle off of the parasol about 2 inches below the stopper. Be careful not to cut the end of the stopper off or it will loose its springyness. If you're worried about it, do a test cut 3 inches from the stopper and you'll be able to look up the inside of the handle shaft to see how much more you can cut off.
Now head inside and take the glass shade off of your ceiling mounted light fixture. There should be a little washer-like piece of metal left on the post, leave it there for now because it will become the support for the wire hook you hang the parasol from.
Okay, now you have to wrap a long piece of wire around the base of the parasol handle, twisting it many times to make it stronger, and then form it into a loop.
Now wrap a different piece of wire around your finger a couple times, and form the end into a hook, twisting it around itself again for strength. Unscrew the metal washer from the lamp's post, don't loose it! Now slide the hook you made onto the post, and put the washer back on to hold it in place. You need to screw the washer high up onto the post. (Notice I changed the light bulbs, those CFLs are much more energy efficient and put out hardly any heat.)
Now comes the fun part,you have to put the loop you made on the parasol onto the hook of the light. And it helps a lot to turn the light on, you can see through the parasol easily.
You may notice the parasol is hanging a little lopsided, so to remedy this you need to screw the metal washer and hook as high as you can on the post, until the end of the parasol's handle is braced against the ceiling, then you can adjust it to the correct angle and bend the wire hook upwards to make it extra tight.
For fun, I took the tassles off of the handle's end and put them on the "finnial", I think it's cute!
Now stand back and admire the glow... ^_^
P.S. If any part of this tutorial doesn't make sense, plese leave me a comment and I'll try my best to clarify! Hope you like it!
If you have found this or any of my other free patterns useful and would like to help me keep creating them I accept PayPal donations!
What an awesome idea Chase.
ReplyDeleteI love it!!
great tutorial, great idea!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely something I can see the rich and famous and ultimately hip saying "I want that in my house!" Great job. Great pictures of process too.
ReplyDeleteI totally have that same Ikea white lamp, but ours is in the corner of the living room. It kicks ass.
ReplyDeleteI love it! So pretty.
ReplyDeleteI saw the photo on whip up. Thanks for the how to, I have always wanted to make an umbrella lamp, but haven't made that leap of figuring it out. Thanks for the leg work!
ReplyDeletewow! and what else would look cute, is three or four parasols of different sizes, although it would look the opposite of formal
ReplyDeleteI wish I had seen this a month ago! I did this placing the parasol in a ceiling corner of my bedroom. It was a massive struggle yet worth it! I will sit and stare at it, it looks so amazing!
ReplyDeleteLove this lampshade idea :)
ReplyDeletewhat size parasol do you suggest for a 11 x 12 room? Thank you for the how to!!! I want to do this for my baby's nursery.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. I was looking all over for directions on how to do this.... I will try it and see how it goes....
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! I'm really glad this tutorial is helping people!
ReplyDeleteAs far as size goes, the only parasols I've found have been the standard size and the mini ones. A mini one could be a really cute lampshade as well, it would look a bit more like the glass ones already in place on many of these kinds of fixtures.
Loved this. The lamp is so simple, elegant and soothing. Great piece of work. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteWondering how you clean the Ikea lotus lamp. Ours (we have 2 of them) collect dust easily and we recently uninstalled them to clean. It was time consuming and required a lot of patience. I actually saw the cleaning lady remove the individual leaves and now they're somewhat crooked. :(
ReplyDeleteWell, that picture of the ikea lamp was taken when it was new, and now that you mention it mine is really in need of a good cleaning. I think I will wait till we move to a new apartment, but the best way I have found is to take the whole thing down and off the pendant light, then soak it in a solution of white vinegar and water in the bathtub for about an hour, rotating it halfway through. Then you can just wipe it off with a wash cloth and rinse it, then let it air dry. A bit of an undertaking though!
ReplyDeleteOM...so glad I googled! I had the idea, about the parasol, and have been working out the logistics in my head..until I thought, maybe Ill just do a search and see if anyone else as thought of this already and made a tute! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you!