As promised, I'm here to share a little something that I was up to this past weekend. For quite some time I've had a vision for Will's bedroom in the new house. I recently shared these ideas in this post. I love the idea of decorating with maps and globes and decided that I would incorporate that "theme" into his light fixture. I had seen a couple of options that I was considering.
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| image via www.etsy.com |
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| image via http://catherinehug.de/ |
I ultimately decided to go with the globe light over the maps mostly because I thought it would put off more light in the room. So, I made it my goal to track down the perfect vintage globe. I headed to a local antique mall to see what I could find. I was a little worried that I wouldn't find anything but they had several to choose from. I kept putting one in my cart, walking around, finding one that I liked better, and then forgetting where I had gotten the other one to put it back. Oops! I knew that I was sold when I found this one. Isn't it pretty?
It was absolutely perfect! Why, you ask? Because the colors go perfectly with the Will's bedding. I'm pretty sure that every color in the quilt is also in the globe. Needless to say, I was soooooo excited!!
So, let's talk about how I managed to get it from globe to light fixture. The first thing I did was pull off the equator! Or, the little piece piece of tape that was covering the seam around the middle of the globe.
I then used a knife to cut around the entire seam. I started with an exacto knife but the blade kept coming out. So, I resorted to a regular old kitchen knife and it worked wonders. Before I knew it, the Earth was in two pieces. I did all the cutting with the metal stand still attached. There were no visible screws to take it off so I just started cutting and hoped for the best. Luckily once the pieces were in half, they just lifted out of the stand.
And, here is what the inside of a globe looks like. Can I be honest with you? I never really knew that globes were made out of cardboard but that is all it is. There was also weird green glue that was used to hold it together. I did my best to peel all of it off; however, I did take a little of the cardboard along with it.
I was planning to paint the inside, so I was hoping that it covered well enough and it wouldn't matter that it was looking slightly mangled. At first, I was going to paint it white but I ultimately decided on this turquoise color. I used acrylic craft paint and did about three coats.
As you can see, I also cut a hole in the top for the lighting kit to go through. I purchased a Westinghouse Pendant Kit from Home Depot in brushed nickel. They are awesome! I actually bought several of them to hang all of our pendant lights. It allows you to hardwire to the ceiling and it fits any standard pendant shade. A lot of the light fixtures that I chose came with plug-in cords so these have definitely been a lifesaver! I simply traced the the socket and then cut out the circle that I had traced.
The pendant kit had already been installed in Will's room by the electricians so I just had to climb up on a ladder and attach it. I screwed in a light bulb and that was that! Here are a couple of shots of it hanging with the light on and the light off. I hope that Will loves it as much as I do!
Hmmm...now I wonder what I should do with the other half of the globe. I'm thinking maybe a decorative bowl for another area of the house like a centerpiece on our dining room table. Ahhh...so many ideas...so little time. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Thursday!
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