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Footed Bowl From Lighting Components

Today I wanted to share a very quick and easy upcycling project that I made for less than $3. It’s a decorative footed bowl that I made from lighting components, a piece of wood, glue, and jute.

(Please be so kind as to disregard the fact that I still have lots of touchups and cleaning up from my impromptu countertop refinishing project.)

It all started the other day when I was walking through ReStore and came across this little thing in the lighting section priced at $1…

I wasn’t really sure what it was, but I liked the shape, so I snatched it up.  Then I headed to JoAnn Fabrics and picked up a decorative piece of wood for $1.80 (with a coupon).  The alabaster-ish light globe thingy I already had from a ceiling fan that broke, but I saw similar items at ReStore.

I didn’t have screws the right size to fit the holes in the metal piece, so I used some glue that I had on hand to attach the metal piece to the wood.

I did go ahead and put screws into the screw holes just to fill the holes.  The heads on the screws were too small to be effective, so they’re literally just acting as space-fillers.

Then I caulked where the metal piece and the wood piece met, and I also caulked the screw holes.  You can see that it made quite a difference.  The screw on the right is caulked, but the one on the left isn’t, so it’s much more visible.  After the caulk completely dried, I sprayed the piece with two coats of primer.

Next I gave it a coat of flat black paint.

Using the same glue, I attached the glass piece to the base.  I used the foaming/expanding Gorilla glue.  Since there was so little of the base touching the glass globe, I wanted it to be very secure.

I finished by sanding the black base to give it a distressed look, and then covering the “stem” on the base, as well as the visible glue where the two pieces connected, with hot glue and jute.

And I had a pretty little decorative footed bowl.  Total cost?  Since I had the hot glue, jute, and glass globe on hand, the whole thing cost me $2.80.  Not too bad, huh?

I love the way it turned out, and it could be used in so many different ways.

I think it would also make a nice gift for someone with a rustic/farmhouse/cottage style house.  And I bet they’d never guess it only cost $2.80!

And I really seem to be drawn to anything made with jute lately.  I love the natural color and rustic texture.

So here’s my challenge to you:  The next time you’re in ReStore or a similar store, just walk through the aisles and look at the items, focusing on their shapes.  Pay no attention to the intended purpose of the items.  Just imagine what they could be.

After all, I certainly didn’t go into ReStore needing to buy a light fixture flange thingy.  And if I had skipped the lighting section, thinking “Oh, I don’t need any lighting supplies,” then I would have completely missed out on the perfect base for my footed bowl!

 

 

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8 Comments

  1. Oh this is such a great idea to create with old materials you can re-purpose! I mean I have taken so many lights down from my house and redid the lighting, and I have the globes. Such a neat idea, thank you!