All of the lights in our new home are basic builder's grade fixtures. They aren't anything special, so we've been slowly changing them out one by one. Being on a budget, it's going to take a while to get them all switched out. So in the meantime, I've been doing a little DIYing to make the ones we have a little better.
My office needed something more office-y and less dining room-ish. According to the builder, my office should actually be the dining room so of course they put a dining room light fixture in there. We sold it on Craigslist a while back and I needed something to fill the space until I can find what I really want.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I wanted to try to use what I already had. Thankfully I was able to do both. I started with this light fixture that was hanging in the eat in kitchen area. I took off the glass shade, adjusted the chain to the correct length and spray painted it gold.
I wanted to use this IKEA drum shade I found in the "as is" section (for $5) to make the fixture look more updated. (This one is similar) The blue band wasn't working with my color scheme so I taped it off and painted it black. These shades are actually pretty cool, because you can easily pull off the shade portion and then snap it back together. It would make it much easier to cover with fabric or something like that too.
As you can see we had a lot of other painting projects going on at the time. :)
Once the shade was dry, I attached it to the light fixture. You just slip the shade right over the bulb socket and then screw the plastic ring on to hold everything in place. A picture might explain it a little better, so here you go.
I didn't add anything to the bottom of the shade, so if you are standing directly under it and you look up you'll see the exposed bulb. It really doesn't bother me, because this is only a temporary solution, but if it did you could always add some material or something to the bottom.
If you live in a newer home chances are you may have one of these hanging in your breakfast nook. It's such an easy update and makes a huge difference in the appearance of the light. If you left the metal portions brushed nickel it would be even easier. Just switch the glass shade out with the drum shade and you have a new fixture!
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