There once was a bottle of wine….Will and I buy wine on occasion, and I had heard moscato was pretty good, so decided to give it a try. After drinking said bottle of wine over a couple of days, we emptied it, and I noticed that it had a lovely blue tint to it. Such a shame to throw away such a pretty bottle.
Then…a lightbulb moment! I would make a lamp out of it!
Yep, a lamp. I had been reading one of my favorite blogs recently, The Lettered Cottage, and they had hosted a “How-to” party, where different bloggers could link up DIY/decorating projects they had done. One of my favorites was someone who had turned a glass jug into a lamp (and another favorite was someone who turned a music stand into a lamp!). I had been thinking about making a lamp for awhile, so when I saw the gorgeous blue wine bottle, sitting there all empty and without current purpose, inspiration struck.
A week or so later we took one of our frequent trips to Lowe’s and purchased a ceramic drill bit and a lamp kit (oh, and a lamp shade). I returned home eager to start my project but didn’t get the opportunity until a few days later. I blame the 3 year old and 1 year old I’m responsible for. I finally found time to start drilling, so taped over where I planned to drill the hole for the cord (just in case of glass breakage), and went to town. The blogger who had converted the glass jug said it took her five minutes. When a few minutes had gone by, I started to wonder what I was doing wrong. Ohhhh. I had it in reverse. Again, I blame the 3 year old and 1 year old, both of whom kept interrupting me to attend to their needs. I am only admitting this fact due to my desire to be “real”. Laugh if you want to. Go ahead. I did!
Sooo, once I got the drill going the right way, more progress was made. After finishing the hole, my husband (who had just arrived home a few minutes before- unfortunately in time to witness my lack of drilling prowess) and I tag-teamed assembling the lamp and preparing dinner. He was my consultant for the wiring to make sure I didn’t do that backwards, and after threading the cord, wiring the lamp, and attaching the shade, viola! We had a lamp.
I didn’t like the first shade we chose, so checked around at a few other stores for one I liked better. Goodwill- nope. HomeGoods- nope. TJMaxx-nope. Target- of course! And, they were on sale.
So total cost was: ceramic drill bit- $8; lamp kit- $8; lamp shade- $13= $29. Which would normally be too much to me but when I considered that the drill bit is an investment to be used for years down the road, thereby making the project more like $21, I felt pretty good about it.
Here’s the final project…
And a close up…
At first I wasn’t sure about the navy blue in the lamp shade with the aqua type shade of the glass, but it really grew on me and I like the way the darker blue makes the aqua stand out more!
I also wasn’t sure about the brown cord, but when you are working with glass, cords are going to show regardless. Nevertheless, I think I’ll go with a white cord next time. I definitely want to make more. It’s a lot of fun!
Dancing in the Mundane 
Love it! Very pretty and chic! You’re so crafty 😉 If you don’t like the cord showing, could you fill it with river rocks or beads? I think you’d still be able to see the pretty blue of the bottle.
Thanks! And I love the suggestions about filling it with something. I really want to do a glass jug (or something along those lines) with seashells in them. My grandmother had a lamp like that full of seashells (that my parents had actually given her) and it was always one of my favorite things in her house growing up!
Pretty shade!! You’re so creative!
Thank you! It’s actually pretty easy and it helps when you can follow along on someone’s blog like I did 🙂
hi. kindly give me the instructions on how to make that lampshade coz its really cool and i want to make crafty things like that. ^_^ pls..