DIY birdcage chandelier

While I am still shopping for a light fixture for the living room, I have had one for our side entry way sitting on the living room floor for months.  Yesterday, I finally installed it.

Here’s the fixture that came with the house:

Fine looking, but not our style.  Here’s our new ceiling light:

It’s actually not a light fixture, it is a giant birdcage/Moroccan lantern candle holder from Home Goods.  I just removed the candle holder parts, shortened the chain that was coming from the ceiling and hung it up by the handle.

It actually wasn’t quite that easy, but it should have been.  I wanted to use the same light kit that was in the original fixture, but I cut the wires too short.  Boo.  The Hubs always says “Measure twice, cut once.”  And I forget every time.  Thankfully, there are always extra light kits from Ikea around our house.

Ikea’s Hemma cord set is a plug in light kit, but all you have to do to turn it into a hardwired cord is cut it to your length and carefully cut away the insulation to expose the wire.  These things are wonderful and at $5 a piece, they are cheaper than purchasing the separate parts to make your own.

So, the new light cost us $30 at Home Goods and an extra $5 for new cord set.  And if you don’t screw up and cut the cords too short, the whole project could be done in about 15 minutes.