Lovely Lighting… $10 Pendant Update

These days, I’m claiming lots of little victories around the house (hanging heavy mirrors, recovering chairs…) and carbo loading for some of the bigger projects I have coming up (#mudroom… #powderroom)! Sometimes the smaller projects are harder to share because they’re within a space that still has a looooooong way to go, but promise I’ll show them all eventually! Despite the disarray of the surrounding space, today I HAD to share this $10 light makeover. FIFTEEN.

Like any good makeover, it started at Ikea. The playroom light is one of my favorites, but it seemed a little small in this space. I went into Ikea thinking I’d grab this mackdaddy option (affiliate). But… I was a little nervous it might hang too low and tempt the kids to huck things at it. The flowers are also a fairly delicate paper which also gave me pause with our brood of hell raisers. I considered getting our same pendant in the larger size but then… THEN… you guys… this pendant was on sale for $9.99. NINE NINETY NINE! (It’s the discontinued Nipprig pendant, but you might find it in your local store…)

For a minute I worried that it was too similar to my all time favorite basket/ pendant now hanging in the foyer. But that minute went by fast and into the cart this guy went. For ten dollars, what have I got to lose?! If you saw my post last week about flea market domination, then you know that one of my first tips to repurposing and thrifting is to IGNORE the color. Anything can be painted and that was my plan for the ol’ Nipprig.

I grabbed a vibrant bright green (Behr Lawn Party) that would match the chairs and the rug in the space and used my HomeRight sprayer (affiliate link for your convenience) to give the shade a few light coats. I was worried for a second that I should have primed first with some spray primer… but the paint seems to be setting just fine. (Primer would probably be smart, though…)

Even though the rest of the room is still in limbo and waiting for me to pull of the remaining wallpaper residue and paint… the light is SO much more fun in the space. I love the color up there. And the size is better for the space in my opinion. And… I kinda love how the two pendants relate to each other, so when you walk in the front door, you see the two basket lights echoing each other in the two rooms. But that could also be a great way to justify having two basket lights in one house!