Monday, June 25, 2012

Bedroom light fail

I figure it's only fair to write about the failures along with the successes. Today I had a lighting failure :(

I wanted to change the lighting situation in the bedroom, since the overhead light is a ceiling fan that we don't use that just looks large and dark in our small bedroom. I didn't want to replace the whole fixture since I know our landlord really likes it (he proudly mentioned having just installed it when we toured the apartment originally). Instead, I thought I'd just unscrew the fan blades and then mount something new around the existing fixture.

So I went from this:

To this:

And then this, when I removed the glass cones around each bulb:

I decided I wanted to make a drum shade to hang around the existing fixture, so I found a few tutorials online and concocted a plan that involved an embroidery hoop, poster board, some fabric (already on hand), and a glue gun.

First, I figured out how deep the drum shade should be (I determined 15", in order to fit over the fixture). I needed about 1.5 piece of posterboard glued together to get the right length to wrap the posterboard around the embroidery hoop). I just glued two pieces together with a hot glue gun to get a long strip that's 15" wide at all points, then trimmed off the excess length.


Then I slowly glued one edge of the posterboard strip around one of the rings of the embroidery hoop, like so:

After gluing the other ring along the other edge, I was left with this cylinder:

Then I covered it with some fabric that I had on hand (from the roman shade project for the living room):

Then I had to figure out how to mount it. I ended up screwing a few small hooks into the ceiling, and then attaching some binder rings I had on hand to the shade that would slip over the ceiling hooks.

Here's where the fail part comes in. The project was successful in a technical sense, but I just don't like the result. The proportions don't feel right -- too long, not wide enough:


It feels like a trash can attached to the ceiling or something. Not exactly what I was going for. Another picture, without the light turned on:

So, I will just have to try try again! Mulling over some possibilities, both for the bedroom light and how to reuse the supplies on another project if I don't end up using them in whatever I end up doing in the bedroom. Oh well, but I guess it's all about the trial and error!

4 comments:

  1. Oh, I appreciate you posting a failure! It makes me a little less intimidated by your many successes. I must admit this one made me lol -- it does look a bit like the photo has been flipped and we are looking at a lovely wastebasket.

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    1. Yeah, "trash can chic" isn't exactly the look I was going for... :) But it's all part of the DIY package, there's plenty of failure mixed in there!

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  2. Maybe the issue is that it is so cylindrical, ie that the sides are straight? To me it also kind of looks like a scoop shop ice cream container. Well ... maybe you can put a bottom on it and use it for a waste basket!! Oh well -- you'll just have to put your imagination to work again ... how bad is that!!

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    1. I've definitely seen a lot of cylindrical drum shades I likes, but the proportions are just too off (it would need to be wider to balance it out). But agreed -- not too bad to keep working at the project!

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