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    • I'm Christina, a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

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You are here: Home / Interior Decorating / Apartment Life / DIY paper light for under $15

DIY paper light for under $15

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Apartment Life, Crafty, Decor, DIY, The Victorian

Our real dining room is finally starting to come together.  I still need to replace the bench with a settee on one side of the dining table, but I finally got curtains, (almost) finished the chairs and replaced the lighting.

When we moved in, we had an icky (and way too small) brass and yellow glass chandelier.  I removed the globes and painted it black a few days after moving in to tide me over until I found a new one.  We finally replaced it with a DIY light last week.

I wish the pictures did it justice.  They don’t.  It’s feminine, but not as feminine as it looks in photos.  It looks like a giant snowball in person, and it adds so much fantastic texture to the room.  But then when you turn it on, not only does it still light up the room, it looks like a glowing star.  I don’t think we’ve had a single person (even guys!) visit that haven’t stared and asked about it (and even asked me to make them one).

It’s a super easy, very cheap DIY.  It takes time, but you will NOT regret it.

You’ll need:

A round paper shade (ours is 24 inches)
A cord set (or a $5 one from IKEA)
Coffee filters (about 350)
Glue gun & many sticks of hot glue (here’s a good one!)

(Affiliate links above)


We already had the shade and cord, but to buy them new from IKEA is only $9.  It takes about 350 coffee filters (I underestimated and had to go back to the store twice–when it looks like you only need about 50 more, you probably need over 100), and those cost less than $4.

DIY coffee filter paper chandelier | Little Victorian

It’s one of the easiest projects ever.

  1. Separate a few dozen of the coffee filters first to speed up the process.
  2. Glue the filters to the shade one at a time.
    The best way is to reach inside the coffee filter, and scrunch up the base from the inside. (Sorry, I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of this pretty important step, but I think you can picture what I mean.)
  3. Apply hot glue to the outside of the scrunched up bottom of the coffee filter while it is still holding it in one hand.
  4. Stick the filter to the shade.
  5. Keep going for 3 hours. 🙂  I put each coffee filter snugly up against the one(s) next to it.  Don’t leave too much space, or it will be obvious that it’s just coffee filters glued to a shade.

The shade gets heavy where you put the coffee filters, and will try to roll away as you’re working, so to get it to hold still, I made a base from a towel.  Just roll one up and then form a circle with it, then put your lantern on top.

The cord set is made for plugging in, but to hardwire it (if you’re comfortable with electricity), just cut the plug off, and pull the wires apart–at that point, it will be exactly like replacing a hardwired light. (Update: I made a tutorial of turning a plug-in light into a hard-wired light.) If you don’t want to hardwire it, the cord set comes with hooks so you can plug it into a socket and hang it from anywhere.

Coffee filter light DIY | Little VictorianDIY paper chandelier | Little Victorian

 

It really doesn’t look orange at all when it is on, it just shows up that way in photos.  I’ll get this photography thing figured out someday.

dining room
HA! Just noticed the broken chair arm in the corner.

If you don’t already already have the supplies, this project would cost about $14 and take about 3 hours.  I totally recommend it.

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  1. Angie Johnston

    November 11, 2011 at 3:18 am

    It’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to see it in real life!

    Reply
  2. Amanda Conley

    November 13, 2011 at 12:33 am

    Very pretty! I love your dollhouse renovations too!

    Reply
  3. lavitapetite

    November 13, 2011 at 4:24 am

    This would be lovely at a wedding! or a fancy house 🙂

    Reply
  4. Ginger Lola

    May 12, 2013 at 8:19 pm

    i love this, you are a genius!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Our dining room, at the moment - Little Victorian says:
    November 4, 2013 at 9:50 am

    […] (Oh, and while I was taking photos of the dining room, I finally took some better photos of our DIY chandelier and updated the dreadful pictures from one of my very first posts.) […]

    Reply

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So we were making great (though last- minute) prog So we were making great (though last- minute) progress. Then we're putting the picture hanger on the DIY art I made for the room when the 80-pound dog comes in and steps STRAIGHT THROUGH THE ARTWORK. 😵 
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3 hours to go. 
#100roomchallenge
Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventua Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventually finish most of our restoration/renovation projects. I'll share the updates in the coming months as we get settled in to our new place. 😁
@little.victorian

Before Footer

Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle is painted a warm gray. It will be soon. 
It was $94 for the whole thing. 
Swipe for the before. See everything at littlevictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
So we were making great (though last- minute) prog So we were making great (though last- minute) progress. Then we're putting the picture hanger on the DIY art I made for the room when the 80-pound dog comes in and steps STRAIGHT THROUGH THE ARTWORK. 😵 
Hubs is trying to fix it as usual. But seriously...I don't know if any more obstacles could be thrown at us during this challenge. 😂 
3 hours to go. 
#100roomchallenge
Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventua Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventually finish most of our restoration/renovation projects. I'll share the updates in the coming months as we get settled in to our new place. 😁
House update! The realtor is still confused about House update! The realtor is still confused about why "it's such a popular house." When she arrived yesterday for a showing, there were 8 cars in the driveway. 😃
We had three offers the first day, one of whom hadn't even seen the house in person yet.
Surprise! The house is going on the market today. Surprise! The house is going on the market today. (Long story that I'll fill you in on when I have more than 2 seconds.)
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But we're once again with a realtor that calls our house "unique" instead of calling it a Mid Century Modern. 🤦‍♀️
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We can't count how many locals came into this house and mentioned that those windows should be removed and walled up and the beams cut off. And then it would be a "normal" house. 🤯
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Still can't really identify with people in this area. 🤷‍♀️ SO happy to be going back home to the East coast TOMORROW!
Right? We're getting back into the house restorat Right? 
We're getting back into the house restoration and we'll be working on the powder room in the master bed. 
Guys. It's bad. Swipe to see.
And we're going to try to make it pretty with a super tiny budget of $100 in 4 weeks and we're joining the #100roomchallenge to keep us (me) motivated.
The bedroom design is starting to come together th The bedroom design is starting to come together thanks to Craigslist and Goodwill. 
#OneRoomChallenge
@little.victorian

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