Serendipity Refined Blog: Stirring Up A Little Lighting

If you follow Serendipity Refined on Facebook then, earlier tonight, you saw this photo with the caption "Anyone want to guess what this is?"

Paint Stir Lamp using Vinegar and Steel Wool and Chalk Paint by Serendipity Refined

Of course, Chris figured out what it was, as did several others.

If you read blogs with advertising, chances are you've seen this lamp. It's from Shades of Light and it's $229. I saw it a while back and thought that it would be cute for the patio. I pinned it on Pinterest and forgot about it for awhile. So long, in fact, that I couldn't find it this morning when I looked for it but it's there now!

When today's weather forecast finally called for cooler weather and the chance to sit outdoors tonight. I decided that it was time to make it.

I grabbed a stack of paint stirs, an old lamp shade frame and my hot glue gun.
(Note: if I had this to do over again, I'd use a straight drum shade frame, I think that it would be easier to work with).

Paint Stir Lamp Tutorial using Vinegar and Steel Wool and Chalk Paint by Serendipity Refined

I glued the stirs to the frame. Then I made a cup of very strong black tea. No, it's not because I'm nuts and I like a nice hot cup of tea when it's over a hundred degrees outside. It's even better than that. I made tea to paint with. The tea was used to treat the paint stirs so that I could finally prove that I could age wood using the Steel Wool and Rust Method that I tried (and failed at) back in March

I tried it out on an extra stir and it worked! So, the next step was to use it on the lamp. First, I painted the wood with tea, then with the "iron oxide" that I made from steel wool, white vinegar and a some rusty metal, back in March. As you can see, the wood instantly turns a really nice shade of grey/brown.

This would have been just fine had I wanted it to just look "old". But it was the color that I was after!

First I brushed on a white wash.

Then, a random mix of shades of blue and green to add to the white and gray. These are the colors of my patio and the table that I'm building which I hope to show you soon.

Then, I grabbed a light kit from Cost Plus World Market. (They also have them at Ikea.)

Some rope from Home Depot.

I tried to use embroidery hoops to cover the metal rings on the lamp shade frame but I couldn't find any that were the right size so I decided to use white nylon rope instead. I fastened the ends of the rope using a little hot glue and some waterproof white adhesive tape. I slipped the rings around the lamp and glued them into place. Then, I simply threaded the light socket through the center of the frame and hung the lamp on the patio!

That's all there was to it.

This is how it looked tonight when it was finally cool enough to sit outdoors!

The weather man was actually correct this time! At around 5:00, the wind shifted to the north and the temperature dropped over thirty degrees. Tonight, it was 77 glorious degrees and I was delighted to be sitting under the pergola, enjoying a cool summer's evening. (Even with the crazy Christmas Tree Lot Lights that are strung around the lower patio!)

For the record, (in case you really don't know me at all) the tree lot lights were NOT my idea. However, in the spirit of "equal representation", they're there, around the perimeter of the lower patio, on stakes that I need to paint with tea and rust so that maybe they'll "blend in" a little better. Admittedly, everyone has their own sense of what may be considered "beautiful".

For me, it's a paint stir lamp with a single, 60 watt, bulb. For the men in my life, it's 4,000 watts of lights that look like a Christmas Tree (or used car) lot and can be seen from a half mile away.

I don't turn them on often. (Mainly because I'm afraid that a plane trying to land at O'Hare airport will mistake my yard for a runway!)

UPDATES:

I decided that I should probably protect it from the elements so, this morning, I sprayed it with some clear polyurethane.
A HomeTalk reader brought up a valid point about the socket and moisture from outdoors so I applied silicone caulk to the top of the socket where it meets the cord and added a rubber washer where the bulb meets the socket.

xo,