DIY | Operation Home

Hey guys! First off, I’d happily like to announce that I’ve finally joined the land of the (social media) living! As in, after nine months of blogging I’ve finally opened a Facebook page for Operation Home. Woo-Hoo! Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out (or you can click on my handy-dandy new Facebook icon right over in the sidebar). I’d love for you to “like” my page and share it if you enjoy what you see on my humble little blog. So, thanks a bunch! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys! 🙂

So, now onto lighting. The next step in our foyer makeover. So far we’ve traded out our shabby old rug for a round jute beauty, and completely revamped our cabinets, which transformed this…

To this…

Now to address El Boob Light….

Honestly, I wasn’t planning on changing out lighting just yet. I’d been working on some other stuff that I called priority (which you’ll see eventually). But the other day, as I sat outside on our back porch, staring at this…

…a bamboo lantern that I got on clearance from Target about a year ago, it hit me. LIGHTING FIXTURE!!!!!!

I ran inside at lightning speed and got to work as only I do when struck by sudden inspiration. First, I removed the glass candle insert and the handle from the lantern, just to be sure that I could. It was easy, peasy, so I moved onto our existing light fixture. I simply removed the glass shade…

Which left this…

I stared at it for a while as I decided how to proceed. I tried to simply slip the lantern over the three arms as is, just to see, but that didn’t work. So, for the first time in my life, I manned up, turned off the power, and removed the fixture. All. By. Myself.

That’s right. I totally told that guy who’s boss.

Next, I wanted to remove the circular disk from above the bulbs, so I disassembled the fixture to do so.

My initial idea was to slip the disk through the cage in the lantern to secure it to the fixture. Unfortunately, the disk was a bit too big…

Next, I tried to slip the lantern over the three curved arms, thinking that they could act as hooks to hold the lantern in place. It was also a no-go. Then, I realized that I could remove said arms…

I figured that I could remove them, thread them through the lantern and then screw them back in. But the only way that I could keep the lantern centered in doing so was to thread the arms through the open end of the lantern. Which meant that to change out the light bulbs, I’d have to completely remove and disassemble the fixture. Nope! Wrongo. Not happening.

So, I decided to just completely strip down the fixture to its simplest form and then suspend the lantern from the ceiling rather than from the fixture.

You can see that I removed the three arms leaving holes in the ceiling plate. Joey assured me that we would not be invaded by rabid spiders in doing so. I really hope that I believe him.

Anyways, next I needed to decide how to hang the lantern. After tossing around a few options, I decided that installing hooks into the ceiling and hanging the lantern via string was the way to go. This way, whenever we needed to change out the light bulbs the lantern would be easily removable. So, I purchased these…

…for around 5 bucks total. I chose the smallest hooks I could find that still looked like they’d hold the lantern securely. Fortunately, the lantern is pretty lightweight. I installed the hooks very close to the ceiling plate to give the illusion that they were part of the fixture (or at least to help them blend in a bit more). And then I used fishing line to secure the lantern in place…

Excuse the pink smudges. I had just spackled.

Anyways, the hooks work really well, but I’ll probably still keep a casual eye out for smaller ones to switch to to make them even less obvious. I also went ahead and changed to smaller 60 watt bulbs to allow more clearance from the wood. As of now, there’s a good three inches of space between the bulbs and lantern.

And, here’s the final product…

I’m really loving how the fixture turned out. It makes such a difference in the feeling of the foyer. I love the rustic, graphic punch of fun that it delivers. It compliments the jute rug nicely and adds some organic curviness and interest. And you can’t beat the price. The lantern originally cost me around $15 when I purchased it a year ago. And the hooks and fishing line were five bucks. So, twenty dollars total. Plus, I now possess the knowledge that I can change a light fixture. By.Myself. Which is priceless. And possibly dangerous since now I want to change THEM ALL. (Heehee!! Mischeivously rubs hands together)

So, what kind of projects do you have going on right now? Any DIY light fixtures happening in your neck of the woods?

Linking up at:

My Pinterventures Merry Monday link Party
Tatortots and Jello Link Party
Natasha in Oz Link party
A Bowl Full Of Lemons Link Party!
Home Stories A to Z Tutorials and Tips Link Party!

Some of you will understand my reasoning for this project. Others will think I’m lazy and took the easy way out. I’m personally somewhere in between. But in the spirit of sharing the good, the bad, and the questionably ugly, here I am. Flashing my goods. For all to see.

Ya see, last year, we purchased the Applaro outdoor table from Ikea. And LOVED it. Here’s how it looked last year when I posted our backyard tour…

After we initially purchased the table, I treated it with this…

The man at the home improvement store (I forget which one, now) said that it was highly recommended for UV protection and waterproofing of wood furniture. After the exceptionally hard winter we had this year (for Texas, anyways), I think our table fared pretty well being that we left it uncovered and exposed to the elements. There are a few boards that are very slightly warped (but barely), although I think they were already like that when we purchased the table. Aside from the mild warping, this happened…

Interesting.

The fact that the finish basically flaked off in spots tells me that either the type of wood used to construct the table did not accept the stain well, or Ikea originally treated the table with more of a glaze than a stain. I did some research to figure it out and discovered that I was right about the glaze part. And that Ikea sells said glaze. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to have time to make the hour trek out to Ikea to pick it up any time soon (sad face).

So, I decided to wing it with what I had on hand. I first hosed down the table and cleaned it thoroughly with a rag, then let it dry. Next, I lightly sanded with a fine grit sanding block…

Sanding literally took five minutes. I only strived to remove any remaining flakes in the finish.

Next, I experimented in some small areas with stain that I had on hand to see if I could camouflage the flaked areas…

But soon realized that the wood was not accepting the stain (like, at all) and the flaked areas still remained very light and noticeable. At this point, I realized that touching up the finish was a lost cause. That unless I wanted to completely strip the table top, restain and retreat the top, the uneven finish would remain. And even then, there was no guarantee that the top would match the base given the wood’s resistance to stain. I could paint the table, but knew that I wouldn’t have the time to properly do so in the next few weeks. And the clock is ticking. Temperatures are steadily rising here in Texas and once it gets above 90 degrees consistently, I’ll lose my window of opportunity for painting, staining, etc. Believe me… I’ve tried to paint in the hot Texas heat before, only to end up with a gloppy, ugly mess every time. So, I decided to simply treat the table with Teak oil as is. Protect the integrity of the wood in an attempt to avoid splitting and further warping, so that when I finally am able to paint the table (or reglaze it with the Ikea stuff), I’ll have a nice surface to work with. So, that’s what I did. I mean, some people work hard to achieve a worn, shabby-chic look right?? 😉

To treat the table, I simply followed the instructions on the can. I wiped on the first coat with a rag…

Waited 5-10 minutes, then wiped it off. Then, applied a second coat, waited 15-20 minutes, and wiped it off. Which left this…

It pretty much looks the same. The tone of the wood is a bit richer and the flaky areas now look more intentional as the color variations all have the same sheen. Once I style the table, I think it’ll actually look pretty neat. We plan to get a new umbrella this year and our chairs still look brand spankin’ new, so I think that some pretty flowers in colorful pots, updated accessories like placemats, etc. will be a nice contrast with the worn table. Like I said, the finish won’t remain like this forever. I just didn’t want to risk exposing it to further damage within the time it took me to actually get to refinishing it.

So, that’s my story. I made an ugly finish waterproof. (Judo-CHOP!) 😉

Have you guys been in this boat before? Any suggestions or advice??