Dollar Store Holiday Challenge Part 1: A Lamp

 

My husband gave my daughters $20 to spend on everyone for the holidays. They usually blow most of the money on gifts for the grandparents and their dad. With only a few dollars left, they usually go to the dollar store to pick up their remaining gifts.

I’m not normally a huge fan of the dollar store.  When my kids use to insist on buying toys there, I would cringe.  With the economy so sluggish, I decided to give myself a challenge.  I decided I would pick out a few things from the dollar store and make some inexpensive, yet attractive, Christmas holiday decorations and gifts.

I decided to take holiday ornaments from the dollar store and use them in a lamp project. All the ornaments in the bowl above were from the dollar store. The small red ornaments came 16 to a package and I bought one package. The larger ornaments came 5 to a package and I bought 4 packages. I used the package of small ornaments and two packages of the larger ornaments, $3 worth of ornaments.

I had the glass container/candle holder in my garage collecting dust. I bought it a few years ago to make a lamp. I even drilled a hole in the bottom for a permanent display inside the glass. Since I’m making this lamp for myself, I’m going to wire it so that I can change the insides of the glass when I want.

As you can see the top does come off and the glass can be lifted up. I’m going to wire only the top of the container.

You can see the end of the nipple with the cord going back out the top of my container.

The amount of hardware required for this project is minimal. You need a cord, 1/8 IP nipple and socket set, a nut and a lock washer. I also used a harp. I’ll show you later.

As a side note, that small piece of pipe that carries the cord to the socket is called a nipple. I know it’s a funny name. If you went out to look for the part, you would need to call it by the correct name.

Above is a view of the wiring from the top. The wiring is all contained within the lid of my container. This way I can easily remove the lid and pull the container apart to remove and add decorations.

I added a harp because I wanted to use a silk shade I had. The lampshade had a spider that could be placed over the bolt at the top of a harp.

Above is my lamp with the bulbs inside the container. I’m showing you what it looks like when it’s turned off, so you can clearly see the ornaments inside the glass.  By the way I need to take the plastic off the shade to really use the lamp. If I left  the plastic on, it would be a fire hazard.

I think it’s very pretty.  Because I had most of the materials already, I only had to spend an additional $3 for this lamp.  I do have a couple other packages of bulbs that I bought.  I can either place them in a bowl or make another lamp.

If you want some more information on wiring a lamp, I did a series of blog posts on wiring.  Check out:

Old Tin Lamp Tutorial Part 1: Using Nipples Vesus Pipes

Old Tin Lamp Tutorial Part 2: Making A Lamp with Bead Legs

Part 3: Old Tin Lamp Tutorial With Cord Out the Back