March 16, 2016

DIY Bentwood Pendant Light


Hi friends!  Today I'm going to be sharing a very exciting project that I recently did in our guest bedroom, which is this DIY pendant light that I made for $40, say what!? If you're stopping by today as part of the #chixwithtools series, then welcome to this little blog of mine, I'm so glad to have you here! As part of the series, I will be both sharing my tutorial but also talking about one of my most favorite (non-power) tools, which is the MITER BOX. It might be small, but it's oh so mighty! 

To begin, I want to give a shout out to the person who gave me the plans and idea for this project,  Designer Trapped in a Lawyer's Body. I followed a lot of her steps, but also made some of my own adjustments to make it fit our guest bedroom design more. This project is a knockoff version on this West Elm Bentwood pendant that retails for $199 that is seen below. Beautiful, right? The pendant of course, not the price!! I love West Elm but not always their prices, so when I can make a DIY version I'm ALLL over that! 

Now that you've seen the inspiration photo, let's continue on with talking about the fun stuff, you know, the miter box and how to build this beauty! 

SHOPPING LIST : 
-  (1) Pendant  Conversion Light Kit - This is the exact one that I got in the nickel finish 
-  (4) 14" Quilting Hoops. I got these exact ones which you can also find at Michaels. 
-  (6) Craft rings (for the base) 
-  Miter Box with saw (you can find at any home improvement store)
- Wood Glue
- Fishing line 
- Brad nailer (or you could just use wood glue if you had a lot of time and patience which I don't have)
- Stain color of choice (I used Minwax Golden Pecan followed up by a coat of Special Walnut)

Here is the miter box, simple, right? When you buy it from a home improvement store it comes with both the box and handsaw. The miter box with saw is designed to easily make precision cuts in wood (either straight or 45 degree angles), and is ideal for DIY projects where you are using thin pieces of wood that might otherwise split if you were to use the powerful miter saw. Since in today’s project I used think quilting rings, the miter box was ideal to use. At the end of the post I have also linked some other projects where the miter box was ideal because I was using thin lattice wood pieces.
 
To begin, you are going to separate the quilting rings into two separate rings so you get a total of 8 rings. You are then going to use the miter box to cut the rings in half, in order to get a total of 16 halves. Since I wanted the cuts to have straight ends, I put the handsaw between the two middle slits in the miter box. To cut, just slowly pull the handsaw back and forth, while keeping the saw in the slots, and since the material is thin it will cut very quickly.
Now with the 6 craft rings, you are going to glue 3 rings together using wood glue to form 2 different bases. This is what the quilting hoops will be attached to in order to form the pendant. To ensure that the 3 rings dried perfectly straight, I used clamps on them to dry.
Next, stain the quilting hoops and ring base the color of your choice. I liked the color of the West Elm pendant that this project is based on, so I tried to replicate it. It’s not exact, but it’s close enough for me. I used 2 coast of the Minwax Golden Pecan and followed up with a coat of Minwax Special Walnut.

After the quilting hoops dried, I used a brad nailer to attach the quilting hoops half pieces to the craft ring base. I started with the side that would be at the bottom because that would be the most noticeable so I wanted to make sure that everything would be aligned and pretty.


After the bottom side was complete, I flipped it over and attached the other side of the quilting hoops to the other base. When you purchase quilting rings, the top ring is attached using a block and staples, so once I tore the block off there were holes left from the staples. I made sure that side was attached to the top side of the pendant that would hang near the ceiling, because no one would be able to see all the imperfections.  Also, I ended up only using 13 of the quilting ring halves because that's all that I could fit on the base. 

Here is the pendant shade all finished!

I then went ahead and attached the pendant shade to the pendant light conversion kit using fishing line. Fishing line can hold different weights so I made sure that I was using one that would be able to hold the pendant. Since fishing line is clear, I thought it was ideal because you couldn’t see it very much, but for that reason it was hard to take a picture of that step.

After  I had secured the pendant shade, my husband then hung it up in our guest bedroom and here it is! 
What do you think? Much more beautiful than a standard flush mount, right? 



And check out the shadows that it creates at night! Super cool right? 



Thank you again for stopping by! I hope you all enjoy this series and we look forward to each of your projects! Head over to Instagram to see how to enter! 

Also, here are other projects that I've used a miter box with as well:





Want to stay up to date with more of my home decor, DIY, lifestyle and other posts?  Then follow me along on any of the following so you won't miss out:) 

9 comments :

  1. Looks great Megan! I might need to find a spot for this in my home😱

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're my hero! Seriously. This is soooo impressive and I need this in my house. I'm thinking the front entryway. Can you just make one for me?! LOL! Seriously amazing. Seriously! How many times can I say, "seriously?" Haha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. When buying nails for your gun, make sure you know the angle and the length. Most framing nailers will take a range of lengths, but the angle will always be the same. bostitch pn100 palm impact nailer

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are a few insider facts how to utilize lighting to make your room look additionally inviting. For instance you can utilize light blinds or muslin wraps rather than window ornaments if the room is dim. In such case normal light won't meet any deterrents on its way inside. https://www.insignis.ro/corpuri-de-iluminat/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Immediately drawn by essayist's selective method for composing.
    Total Pallet Management

    ReplyDelete
  6. The current yearly fare esteem is around 30 million US dollars. hispeedlaser.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. BSEM 10th Model Question Paper 2022 now available on the official website, BSEM has been Announced HSLC Public Examination Time Table 2022 soon, Students can Download BSEM HSLC Previous Question Paper 2022 which is help in your study, and support in getting more marks in public exam, BSEM HSLC Question Paper 2022 with Solutions Available Students you can Download Manipur 10th Question Paper 2022 in Pdf format form this web page below given links. HSLC Regular and Private Students Prepare their Exam from these Sample Papers, Students have to Register for Appearing in Public Exam 2022. so if you are also among those students who have Registered them self as a Regular or Private Student are Suggested to Download.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Do you have an account in Bank of India, If yes, then you might be happy because of the features and services of BOI which they provide to their customers. BOI allow their customers to register for Internet banking online with new requirements?With this, Bank of India net banking services, customer of BOI can access the complete banking services in online to transfer the funds, Bank of India net banking login generate statements.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This light is sooo cute! I love it so much! I am wanting to do some home projects when the kids go back to school and I would love to recreate this. I am planning on doing some kitchen cabinet refinishing this month so maybe after this. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

    ReplyDelete