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Roped It

The other night, while Colby was away working at a construction show, I decided it was high time for some craftiness.  We’re talking a serious impulse craft project going on here.  I had a mess of leftover rope from the CD crate project and a boring lampshade that was attached to the hallway light fixture so I decided to go to town.

Sorry for the weird light.  It was all twilighty outside…don’t worry…not the vampire variety.  Although I would totally welcome Edward with open arms!  Shhh….don’t tell Colby.  This project was especially special because it was my first craft project in the craft room.  Overall rating of the room as a craft room….9.5.  It would have been a 10 but I left my scissors down stairs and that damn Russian judge is tough!

Out came the glue gun.

And I began the tedious process of gluing the rope to the shade.

Around and around and around and around.  In total, it took me about 30-45 minutes to glue the rope to the shade.  And that’s with a quick fold the laundry break in the middle of it.  It was super easy too.  I had quite the system of apply a dab of hot glue, adhere the rope, slide a couple of inches and repeat.  It worked out pretty well by gluing the rope down every two inches or so.

After it dried, I hung it back up in place.  That night, when Colby came home I greeted him with a “so….I kind of did something.  And if you don’t like it, it’s totally reversible.”  I mentioned that it was a house project and he proceeded to stroll around the house looking around and guessing what it might be while repeating the mantra, “something is different….”  He finally noticed when he sat down on the couch in the living room.

Here’s the closeup.  My only gripe is that I used two different ropes.  They looked the same to me while gluing away but apparently they were just a little off in color.  Oh well…it just gives the shade some character.

And here is the view from the living room.  I love how it breaks up all the white/gray and adds some texture to the space.

And of course the obligatory nighttime shot with the light glowing through the rope.

I love the new rope shade…almost as much as Colby does.  Speaking of that, the rope shade has been completely Colby approved so I don’t have to re-do it.  Yay!  Just have to re-do the floors…le sigh!  I have to admit, the sisal rope made the lamp shade a tad bit heavier…and by a tad bit I really mean that I’m worried  the weight of the shade is going to rip down the light fixture in a giant, crashing mess kind of way.  But it’s been up there for three days now and so far so good.  Not bad for a little evening random project using leftover materials.

Pssst…Oh how I love a random sporadic project.  What about you guys?  Any favorite random projects?  Or have you roped anything?  Figuratively or literally?  I also roped myself up a cake plate this week.  Mmmmm….cake!  Now I have just the excuse to bake this weekend instead of sanding floors.

Comments

    1. Paula…it’s one of those super cheap pendant kits from the Home Depot. We picked it up there a couple years ago for only $10 (you can read more about it here). It’s just a basic pendant without any shade. Then we just attached a regular old lampshade to it. Hope this helps! I’ll shoot you an email too just in case you don’t get it here. Thanks for stopping by!

  1. Hi Angie,

    Thank you so much for this post! I am looking at changing our hallway lights (cheap boob lights, which I put in as an upgrade when we got the house a few years ago) and living room lamps and was wondering if I could use a regular lampshade. About 10 minutes ago I found a basic semi-flush mount fixture and thought, can I just add a lampshade to this? and then I found your post. This will be cheaper than buying a whole fixture (can do both the hallway lights for the price of one fixture at lowes!), and I can do a colorful design, and then mix them out.

    I am starting to get crafty, but do not have a glue gun yet. I do have a spool of twine though.

    Does the rope block the light at all?

    I *love* the ceiling medallion for this light. Did you make this also?

    1. Sally – we used regular old 3/4″ sisal rope from Lowes. It’s in the same aisle as all the screws and nails (at least at our local store) AND it’s cheap!

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Angie's Roost Campbell Family in front of home in 2021

Hi there! We're the Campbells. We traded in Maine city living for the country life in Vermont. You'll find us here fixing up a circa 1781 historic home, growing our own food, and filling this home with the memories and things that matter. Read more about us...

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