Woo to the hoo. We did it. We met our self-imposed Tuesday morning deadline and finished our clothespin chandelier as part of our little (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie B to make us stop pinning and start doing stuff that we’ve already pinned).
Here’s how it all went down. We already explained the whole Pinterest Challenge thing here, which is where we snuck in a few photos of our supplies, like this one below:
We actually didn’t end up using those three 10″ metal rings from Ben Franklin, but the rest of the stuff came in handy. So for those who can’t quite make everything out, “the rest of the stuff” is: a $4 light kit from Ikea, part of a roll of hardware cloth (aka: wire fencing) from Lowe’s, white gloss spray paint, some old wire from our craft drawer, gloves & metal snips for handling/cutting the wire fencing, and two bags of clothespins (we actually ended up needing eight bags of them in the end).
As for the $4 light kit from Ikea, it’s a plug in light kit (meant to be swagged) but an electrician friend of ours taught us that it can also be converted into a hardwired fixture by clipping off the plug part, exposing the wires within the cord, and connecting them to the wires in your overhead junction box (with the power off of course!). Then we just added a $5 ceiling canopy from Lowe’s (that white medallion looking thing that finishes things off).
Of course that dangling light kit is nothing pretty, so we got to work constructing a drum shade-ish thing out of wire fencing. First I donned my gloves and used the metal snips…
… to cut out a strip of wire fencing that was approximately 9.5″ tall (since we wanted our shade to be about 10-11″ tall when completed and we had to allow for some dangling clothespins to make it a little longer than the frame).
Then since the ring was 10″ wide, we just made a loop of wire fencing with a 10″ diameter and used craft store wire that we had on hand to bind the fencing to itself to create a nice drum shade-ish loop o’ metal squares. It was at this point that we realized we didn’t need the 10″ ring at all since the wire fencing held its shape really well (we worried it would be all floppy and wonky).
Oh and as for some details on the wire that we used to secure it, it was 22-gauge stuff. It’s actually thinner than the wire that we pictured in the supply photo up top (thank goodness for having lots of spare wire around!) because it ended up being easier to twist while still being rigid enough for a good hold.
The next obstacle was figuring out how we’d affix the ceiling mounted light kit to the wire “shade” that we were making. We contemplated a few things – like cutting a piece of scrap wire fencing in a circle to bind to the top (and then cutting a circle in the middle for the light to drop into). We even scavenged for some items to repurpose, like a kitchen splatter guard and a stove burner drip pan (the last of which almost won, since the light kit perfectly screwed through the existing hole in the bottom). But ultimately it got vetoed because it would’ve blocked too much light – and the extra hole in the top would have cast a weird ray of light onto the ceiling. So you’ll see our eventual solution in the “after” pics. Oooh, the suspense.
Next I sprayed the wire fencing with white gloss spay paint that we already had in our little basement spray paint collection. I did this for two reasons:
- we thought glossy white would work with the ceiling canopy that we added and look a little more polished (although some folks might love the industrial look of unsprayed wire)
- some metal fencing like this can have traces of lead in it, so although we weren’t sure ours did, we handled it only with gloves on waaay away from Clara (on the tile floor of our sealed-off-from-the-rest-of-the-house sunroom). Layering on a few thorough coats of spray paint is like sealing old lead-painted walls with fresh new coats of non-lead paint (which is the recommended method, as long as the old paint isn’t flaking or peeling).
Here she is all sealed/sprayed:
Then it was time to play with clothespins. Which may or may not have been harder than we expected to track down in the right size for our wire fencing.
We used eight bags of “medium” sized clothespins from Ben Franklin (snagged at $1.99 for each pack of 40) to play around with a few different “patterns” for our light fixture.
The first pattern was a straightforward row by row effect. We just clipped pins in a horizontal row and then skipped two rows below that and then pinned another row beneath that.
We also tried a more random pattern that you can see better from the inside shown on the right (we basically alternated squares for a zig-zag-ish effect):
We also tried playing around with a diagonal design, which was fun but hard to deal with at the top and bottom of the shade since there were lots of empty squares that looked kind of odd:
I call this design “The Space Invader” after the old school video game. See the shot on the right below? There are totally two space invader guys hiding in there.
Pretty much right away we narrowed it down to two favorites. The row by row pattern that we did first, and the zig-zag-ish pattern that we tried out second. So John held the shade up with the light on and both patterns facing out so we could take photos of each one and look at them together and decide. Going into it I was all about the row by row thing and John liked the zig-zag better.
Guess who won again? John. Seeing it even for a second I knew he was right about the row by row pattern blocking way more light than the zig-zag configuration. And it felt airier and less heavy so we were both gung-ho as soon as we saw it in fake action (just look at John’s excited face above). But really, we were giddy pretty much from this point of the project on. So then we just (giddily) removed the other clothespin patterns and clipped them all around the shade in our finalized zig-zag design.
We just got lucky that we had secured the wire fencing in a way that created an even number of squares around the top so our pattern could “loop” without getting awkward and having a seam. So if anyone at home is going to try this, we’d definitely recommend having an even number of squares when it comes to the perimeter of the shade.
And now for our hanging solution:
Yup, it was just more of the wire that we used to bind the wire fencing into a drum and three heavy duty ceiling hooks that we screwed nice and securely into the ceiling with heavy duty anchors (don’t want to get clothespinned to death).
Then we stepped back and high-fived for five straight minutes. We’re in love.
I bet you’re surprised we didn’t spray paint that sucker white (or ORB), huh? We even debated staining or dying the wood pins, but in the end we actually really liked the au naturale look because:
- it ties into a few baskets in those built-ins
- it makes it more obvious that it’s a light made of clothespins, which we think is part of the fun
- it glows in a sunny yellowy-tan tone whenever the light is on, which is nice and warm – and works great with the grellow walls
Isn’t it fun?
This shot from below reminds us of a sunburst mirror:
Oh and when it comes to safety, lots of lamp shades are made of flammable things like paper or fabric (or even driftwood, etc) but the key is to keep that stuff well away from the bulb (and to use cooler burning bulbs like CFLs or LEDs to be even more on the safe side). You also want to give the heat plenty of room to escape (ideally around the top and bottom of the shade if possible).
Here she is all lit up:
We think it’s one of the coolest things we’ve made to date, just because it’s so quirky and sculptural. And it’s all thanks to Katie Bower’s big Pinterest Challenge idea and two projects that inspired the heck out of me over on the eye candy capital that is Pinterest. Specifically, this project (originally from here) and this project (originally from here.
Check out the pretty starburst pattern that it casts on the ceiling:
Now for some stats (because we’re mathy like that): we used 320 clothespins (exactly eight packs) and our clothespin shade weighs four pounds.
And here’s the whole budget breakdown thang ($herdog just got twangy on ya):
- 8 packs of 40 medium-sized clothespins (from Ben Franklin): $16
- Pack of hooks for the ceiling (from Home Depot): $1
- Roll of hardware cloth (aka, wire fencing) from Lowe’s: $8
- Hemma light kit (from Ikea): $4
- Ceiling canopy for light kit (from Lowe’s): $5
- Wire for securing / hanging wire frame (already owned): $0
- White spray paint (already owned): $0
- TOTAL: $34
As for if it interferes with heads or flailing arms while switching laundry, this picture shows how high it actually is in the room (and thanks to it being centered in the space, it’s not right above the washer and dryer, it’s a few feet behind it in the middle of the room). We have 8 foot ceilings and the bottom of it is 16″ from the ceiling, so even 6′ tall John doesn’t have any issues with it (since the bottom of it is almost 7 feet from the ground). He even washed a load of diapers and a load of clothes just to be sure.
Can you tell we added our new shoe caddies after we shot this pic? Oops. But anyway, there you have it. A whole bunch of pictures and words about our Pinterest Challenge. And a whole bunch of clothespins.
Oh and don’t forget to check in on Katie, Emily, and Lana to see what amaaaaazing projects they whipped up (they’ll be sharing theirs sometime today as well)! A few hints: one has to do with a mirror and one has to do with a fridge…
And now here’s the part where we invite you to share all of the fun Pinterest Challenge projects that you guys have tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, just:
- click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
- add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
- where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “Clothespin Light Fixture”) as opposed to your actual name
- we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Emily’s, Lana’s, and ours) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.
And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). We can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Geeked out and excited doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Nora says
Looks like John prevailed in the ironing board placement debate.
YoungHouseLove says
I know right! He keeps sneaking it his way and I sneak it my way.
xo,
s
Addie Klein says
Hi, Sherry and John. Speaking of pin interest, I pinned the pic of your sister Emily’s barn door from her master bedroom to her master bath. I’m DREAMING about doors just like that for the pantry I want to build in our kitchen. Do you think you could ask Emily where the hardware for the door is from? I’d be eternally grateful!
YoungHouseLove says
That hardware was provided by her builder (they added the door as they built the house) so all she knows is that it was from an online source since they had to wait for the delivery- but she doesn’t know the site. So sorry!
xo,
s
hjc says
Addie – I’m pretty sure that Dana over at House*Tweaking has a source for barn door hardware on her site. Their yellow barn door is beautiful!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah! Dana is awesome!
xo,
s
paula says
haha@Amanda’s “How’s it hanging”!
Loving the lamp!
Also, just wanted to say that I’ve just noticed your pics of Clara and they are SO SO cute! I have 13 month old twin girls, and while we have a million pictures of them, I’m so impressed with the weekly/photoshopped/fabric idea! So neat! She is adorable! I know you’re loving this stage. :)
Shunta says
Can I just say I am LOVING looking at what everyone has done! Such a great idea to do this J&S! Back to work for about 10 minutes so I can stop for 5 minutes to look at more pin projects!!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re loving it too! It’s so amazing how many folks joined in on the fun. So much eye candy!
xo,
s
Robin says
I love how this turned out! And I especially love how appropriate a CLOTHESPIN light is for a laundry room. It gives a wicker-y vibe, but with the added surprise of everyday material turned into something fabulous. Well done.
Kylie D. says
I am in love. Looks awesome. Love it even more when the light is on :)
Jaimie says
Wow that looks really awesome. I need to replace the light fixture in our laundry room at some point, and I love that it’s laundry-themed :)
We have a bunch of clothespins already too (although I’d probably need a lot more).
Mallory says
I loved this idea, (both the Pinterest Challenge and your clothespin chandelier)!
We’re right in the middle of building a deck, so I wasn’t able to do anything last week. I hope you don’t disqualify me, (just kidding), because I cheated and linked one of my projects a did a couple weeks ago. Ever since I joined Pinterest, (after your letter btw), I’ve been using it as inspiration for real projects around our house and used a pin to add a colorful project to liven up our living room:
http://our1stnest.blogspot.com/2011/08/pinterest-challenge.html
[email protected] says
LOVE all the awesome submissions and your guys’ light turned out perfectly! It’s so sunny and warm and fun! :)
Kristie says
Congradulations!
It’s wonderful when so much effort pays off with such rewarding results. I’ve been on the fence about these shades for some time now, but I have to admit that your results have won me over. I have been following your blog for years nows, and this is the first time I’ve actually been excited enough to be unable not to respond. Hahaha, giddy like a school girl was more like it.
Just want to thank you both for enriching the creativity in my life.
Kristie
Jennifer says
Love it!! So creative and fits perfect into your laundry area :)
Jennifer Darling says
This is awesome! I love this fixture. I would love to have this in my laundry room. Unfortunately, mine is in the basement and the ceiling is too low. Hmm, wonder if I could come up with my own “short” version? Thanks for the inspiration!
p.s. loved Clara’s endorsement. She is just too cute!
Michelle says
Oh my! As if I haven’t been pining over the years enough that I don’t have a laundry room (mine is in the garage) I am even more saddened now! I just walked through my entire house and couldn’t find one stinkin place to put this! But I want it so badly…arg! I so enjoyed this post .. BIG thanks for this!
Amber says
That looks so awesome you two! Great dedication on driving around getting those clothespins…who knew they’d be so hard to find :) This seems like such an awesome website! I’m on the waiting list but really don’t understand the whole thing….? Can someone invite me? I feel so out of the loop! My addy is ajsobrio(at)yahoo(dot)com. Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
If you head over to our Facebook page and request an instant invite someone over there will hopefully email you one! Instant gratification!
xo,
s
Chrissie says
I love this new challenge!!! What a great idea =) The clothespins turned out super cute, looks like you’d pay a lot for it in a store.
http://cleverfaeries.blogspot.com/2011/08/pinterest-challenge.html
Lori @ Richmond, BABY! says
I would stare at it all day if I were you! :) I’m in love. It looks great!
Stacy says
That looks awesome! Very creative guys, I love it :)
Catie says
Hi Sherry & John, I’m new to your site and I LOVE it. Yesterday I took the tour of both of your houses. Great job on the renos and decorating. They both looks fabulous. : ) Anyway, I linked up a little Pinterst project I did back in June – making butterflies out of paper towels. Cute and the kids had lots of fun! ~ Catie
Diane says
Wow, love the chandelier and there is sooo much cool stuff in the link-up section. I’m especially smitten with the DIY star-burst mirrors and the nifty map art. Thanks for the fun challenge!
Catie says
Oh I forgot to say, your shade looks amazing!! Clothes pins, who knew?? haha
Melanie says
Wow, That looks awesome!
Lani @ Diapers and Divas says
The great thing about this challenge is we are finally DOING what we’ve been PINNING. The bad thing is, now I have 100 more pins on my board. Like this Chandy!!! PIN! Looks great!
CraftingAHome says
This is such a wonderful, crafty DIY and it looks totally expensive. Might even be my favorite project of yours ever. Incredible job!
Wordy Girl says
Love how your project turned out!! Here is my project. A chalkboard refridgerator!
http://thewordygirlchronicles.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/a-finished-project-chalkboard-refridgerator/
Rachel @ We Heart Minnesota says
I love your clothespin piece. It is definitely quirky, but it’s very chic too. Perfect for a laundry room. Thank you for inspiring us to do a Pinterest project ourselves.
Meagan says
Ok I don’t know if I can link up since I don’t have a blog, but I have my pictures on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meagsnow/5999944544/
I am the crazy coffee filter girl from the Sunday post. And just so you know, I came in somewhere around 775 coffee filters used. Haha – its insane.
This was such a fun idea to all share our pinterest projects. I love it. ps on my flickr you can see a few other pinterest project I have attempted!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- that’s such a project! Love the outcome though!
xo,
s
Casey says
Have you guys ever had a fail?? This is so cute! My attempt at joining the Pinterest Challenge may be a total fail: http://monogrammedsuitcase.blogspot.com/2011/08/to-join-pinterest-challenge.html
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah, we’ve had our fair share of busts. Here’s are most notable fail: https://www.younghouselove.com/2009/05/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-make-lanterns-out-of-bulb-covers/
Sorry yours didn’t work out as planned. Loved your inspiration so here’s hoping you’re able to shake off the first try and give it another go. Good luck!
-John
Erin says
Thank you so much for spurring me on to get a few projects completed this week!!! Awesome motivation – I will join the other commenter in saying that I woke up giddy about this today… hehe :)
Jessica says
How can I find the list of links that people are posting?
YoungHouseLove says
You should be able to see them as a grid of thumbnails at the bottom of the post. They may not show up in an RSS feed, so be sure to look on our site. Hope you find ’em soon!
-John
Leslie says
Wasn’t so sure what I would think about a clothespin light, but it looks GREAT! I sent a picture of it to several people, I absolutely love it! Perfect in a laundry room, but would work in lots of places. (like maybe in my house….)
Katie Beth says
um, so did you know that we can not pin things from your blog to Pinterest?? i’ve tried it in both Firefox and IE, but Pinterest can’t “find” the photos. sad face. your blog inspires a lot of ideas I can’t pin.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so strange! Have you tried clicking into the specific post about the item you want to pin? It seems that some other folks have pinned things from our blog so we’re not sure what’s up. Anyone else who can or can’t do it with advice?
xo,
s
Katie Beth says
Yeah, I clicked straight in to the post itself. Maybe I’ll try it from my computer at home…
YoungHouseLove says
Hmmm, so sorry Katie Beth! Could be that your computer is blocking the script that displays the results. Fingers crossed it works better from home!
-John
Brooke says
LOVE!!! I’m totally inspired!
Tessa says
It looks sooooo cool from the bottom! OMG, how am I going to find the time to check out all of these other readers’ amazing pinterest projects????
Liz says
Wow – I love the lamp! The pinterest challenge is such a great idea! You guys totally got me off my couch this weekend — I tackled not one but TWO pinterest projects. Please keep this up — it is such an inspirational project!
Natalie says
I’ve noticed you always get light kits from Ikea but the closest Ikea to me is 3 hours away! Do they sell them at Lowes or Home Depot? I want to try this for my laundry room and I already have a few packets of clothespins from the dollar store that I use to hang up my kids artwork!
YoungHouseLove says
We’ve had less success finding them at Home Depot or Lowe’s (or even Ben Franklin and Michael’s). Sometimes they’ve had kits to make a table lamp, but rarely for a hanging pendant like this. But if anyone has had a different experience – or knows of another store entirely – we’re all ears!
-John
Megan D says
Looks like a really fun project!
Can you post a picture of the room at night or evening with the light on, please?
YoungHouseLove says
Sure- we’ll have to try to remember to grab a shot of that for a future post!
xo,
s
Barb says
BRILLIANT!!!!
Nice job!!!
I like your project best!!!!!
Top Notch!!!!
Way to GO!!!
Love it!!!
Need I say more?
B.
Anne says
I love that this posts pays it forward because now I have so many more projects to pin!
Alexa says
Just launched my own blog and, in the same week, was introduced to yours. I love it, so I shared it with my small, but growing number of readers.
http://alifeindrive.com/2011/08/blogsandburger/
Looking forward to following you!
justine @ you're so martha says
love the results! glad that john’s quest for clothespins wasn’t in vain :) so perfect for a laundry room!
Aimee says
Great job, guys! I LOVE that chandy…makes me wish we didn’t have such low ceilings in our laundry area. :) And huge props to Katie for starting this whole thing and getting a bunch of us off our rumps and working!
OwningSingle says
The chandelier turned out very cute and I loved seeing all of the other projects. I’m thinking of DIYing a chandelier for my master bathroom.
Laura says
You guys are a constant inspiration. I look forward to stopping by everyday, and have been for the past two years now.
That clothespin “chandy” is PERFECT right there. I knew it’d be cool, but I didn’t think it’d be that cool! This idea would be neat hovering over night tables on either side of the bed too, super versatile.
On an unrelated note, I was wondering how Karl was holding up? We’ve been debating getting one and now that you’ve had it for a little while, how is it doing with Burger scratches and family visits?
YoungHouseLove says
Karl’s doing great. Burger goes wild on him at least once a day and has yet to get scratched. And it seems to be getting more comfy as the cushions are breaking in more and more. Though we probably should be varying our relaxing positions to break it in more evenly. Oh well…
-John
Nancy says
Are you kidding me?! That looks AMAZING!!! GREAT job!
Candy says
Awesome! Thanks for the challenge, it’s really inspired me to stop (okay slow down) pinning and start doing!
Ashley says
It turned out A.mazing!
i gave 2 small pins a try http://pinterest.com/pin/89926208/ and http://pinterest.com/pin/80835022/. The HexBolt bracelet turned out great http://www.flickr.com/photos/56432405@N05/6002308570/in/photostream/, while the melted crayon artwork was a complete FAIL.
I cant wait for the next challenge, ill be brushing up on my DIY skills ;)
Jen says
As always, I am left so impressed with the outcome of your project! Looks incredible in the new space! It’s so fun and whimsical and I love how the light shines through!!
xoxo,
Jen
Kayla says
Not clothespin chandelier related, but Clara is absolutely adorable!
Sheila Zeller says
Love it! And what a perfect fit for that space… the journey of 320 pins ;-)
robyn says
Love it with a capitol L. Or should I say lurve it. That’s more in line with YHL lingo! I think it has a slight honeycomb reference so it was truly meant to be for you guys! Hopefully this time next year we will have an actual laundry room and I can make one too.