Knock Off Lowe's Kitchen Chandelier

Greetings from the arctic air here in Moo Hampsha! It has been frigidly cold here for the past week.....as in don't go outside for extended periods of time type cold. Brrrrrr.....my teeth are chattering just staring out our window right now.

I have been searching the online universe for a light to hang in the dining nook of our kitchen. Since we are not "formal" dining room type people (maybe someday when the majority of our family doesn't eat with their hands and use mashed potatoes as hair gel), we eat every single meal in our kitchen. Therefore, I would like it to be a special place. The builder grade light that came with the house was so bright it was kind of septic......envision hospital or laboratory type lighting. Eeeeeeeekkkkk! Here it was.....soooooo past tense!

Nothing about it was anywhere near what I was envisioning. Then I saw this gorgeous light at Lowe's and thought...VOILA!

So I waited patiently and thought at some point, we can purchase it. Then as we realized we needed to transfer Bray to a big boy bed, I realized I could DIY this light by recycling his drum shade!

To start, I dismantled the light in the kitchen.

By removing the finial on the bottom, I very easily removed the glass. It was here that I realized there was not going to be an easy way to put the drum on, but never one to give up on a challenge I whipped out some wire cutters.

By making a small cut through the ring, I was able to slide the drum around the existing light. Next, I stripped off the fabric that was covering the drum.

I slid the drum onto the chandelier and began to measure to see how I was going to fit the bottom filter on. I soon realized that the interior rod (where the finial attached) extended further down than the filter would allow. Never fear.....I cut a small hole in the center of the filter and pushed the rod through. Next up, I reattached the finial as a decorative (and structural) piece!

Interior rod was way too long!

Created a tiny hole to push the rod through.

Lined up the finial.

Pushed the bottom filter into the drum shade.

Reattached the finial.

Lastly I added a little grosgrain ribbon to finish off the edges and give it a more polished look!

So much better than what was there and this version was free and that ALWAYS works in our budget! I have been seeing these drum shades at Goodwill lately. I think you could probably use this technique on a lot of different lights!