DIY Lantern Lights

I'm in love with lanterns. I think they add a unique look to a room. House No. 3 definitely had some unique light fixtures when we bought it. Antler sconces, ceiling fans the size of cargo plane propellers... not exactly my style. We have a room that is supposed to be a formal dining/living room. However, our family needed it to be a formal dining/office. While these are two very different rooms, the room itself is actually one very long room. I figured the best way to tie them together would be to hang matching lantern light fixtures. I searched and searched, and pinned lots of lanterns. The problem was, all the lanterns I loved were at least $300. Ouch! I wondered to myself if I could simply make my own, and with a little help from Google, the answer was, "YES!" Honestly, how did we survive before the internet?

Here's what I did: I bought two of these decorative lanterns at T.J. Maxx for $20.00 each.

Then, I ordered two of these light fixtures from lightingdirect.com for $16.00 each. (They had a coupon for 10% off and free shipping)!

I took them apart and spray painted the electrical part and the mounting pieces with Krylon paint+primer.

Then, I had my hubby drill a hole in the tops of the decorative lanterns for the wires and put them all together.

Finally, we hung them (with a little elbow grease)!

Here is a "before" shot of the room (notice the ceiling fan was much too large to even fit in the picture)! And yes, that's yellow paint with tan trim.

And here is an "after" shot, with the two lanterns tying it all together:

Aren't they gorgeous?

So the breakdown goes like this: $20.00 for each T.J. Maxx lantern. $16.00 for each brass light. $4.00 for the spray paint. That's a grand total of $40.00 per light fixture!

I love the feel they add to the room. They are definitely unique, and when people ask me where I got them, I love being able to say, "I made them myself!"