diy schoolhouse light pendant

I really, really wanted a schoolhouse light above the kitchen sink.  Of course, I didn’t want to pay a lot either. And for some reason, schoolhouse fixtures are e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e.  So, I remembered seeing this DIY fixture from Gus & Lula, and the wheels started turning.

We just had a regular old can light above the sink, so I got a light adaptor kit from Home Decorators with a coupon, so around $30.

I wasn’t crazy about the glass shade, and hell-ooo, I want a schoolhouse light, so I started tinkering around. I needed something that would fit around the rim of the schoolhouse glass shade so I looked around for circle shapes and this is what I came up with:

I took a wide mouth canning rim and glued the top to it with E-6000

(a heavy duty glue found at craft stores) Then, I cut the middle out

and glued a regular size canning rim on top of that.

Then I drilled three holes around the edge of the bottom rim 

So that my small screws could fit through. The screws will hold the schoolhouse glass in place.

Then, you will glue your lid contraption to the actual pendant converter (before you hang it up and then let it dry),

Be sure to use plenty of glue…no one is going to see up high and you don’t want your light coming and crashing down! (not that it happened the first time to me…ahem. Just trust me…use plenty of e6000~glob it up!)

and it will look like this:

Then, you are going to attach the glass fixture (found at Lowes or H.Depot for around $5) by tightening the screws with a screw driver. Another thing I want to point out here~see my first set of holes? They weren’t low enough to hold the glass in, so I had to drill some more. Drill low…

So this one was my trial run and that night it came crashing down into the sink around 10:30 p.m. Oooops….not enough glue.

So, here is what we’re looking like right now with the new glass that has held up beautifully for over a month now:

Girl…..go do your dishes.

Oh, all right. The new glass shade is from the Goodwill~ $1 ~ wahoo!

The jury is still out on the curtains…Tina B guessed it correctly in the comments: it’s the Jayda Bramble from Better Homes & Gardens fabric line. I need something to block the sun coming from the west in the evenings and I just made them like I did here, but maybe they need some trim or something extra? I love the fabric though…I’d love to hear (nice) thoughts :) I can’t show you all the cabinets because they’re not finished yet, but they’re coming…

 

edited to add: updated pictures, fabric here.

 Kids have their last day of school TODAY! Happy weekend~

p.s. the pictures are grainy because how in the heck do you take good window pictures without lightening the exposure a bunch??