Dining Room Chandelier

You gotta have a chandelier. Okay you don't gotta have a chandelier, but a light? You need one of those.

When we bought our house, it came with this chandelier.

Although, I think it is kind of cool, it is just too big for the space. It just accentuates how low the ceilings are, so we took it down.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but months later with no money for a light fixture we were living in the dark. So I decided it was time to get crafty.

I looked around the house at what we had and figured I could make something, at least to get us by for now.  I found a lamp shade that I purchased for $15 at a garage sale 10 years ago, and a lamp Nick got from an old girlfriend 20 years ago.

 Put them together and tada... a dining room light fixture.

Okay so it wasn't quite that easy. I took the lamp apart and bought a couple of pieces from the hardware store. I really just needed the piece that connects the lamp to the ceiling. Cost: $6.

This part was relatively easy...in theory anyway.  But the process of getting the lamp attached was, how shall I put this, frustrating to say the least.

The screws that came with the ceiling plate weren't long enough. Unfortunately we had already wired the lamps hen we discovered this problem so taking it down would have been a major hassle. So I held the light up, while Nick ran around the house trying to find a screw long enough. He found one, after an agonizing 15 minutes of me holding my arm over my head. It might not seem like a long time, but it is, believe me.  But eventually we got another screw and it is up and running.  I can't say enough about how nice it is to actually have light in the dining room. What a difference.

I think it looks great. I have always loved that lampshade, and I think it is perfect for the space,for now. I am thinking it might need to come down a few inches, but that will have to wait awhile. At least long enough for us to forget what an ordeal it was to put it up in the first place.