DIY Ceiling Light

Since we moved the chandelier from the dining room to the entryway we needed to get a new light for the dining room.  We wanted something that was flush mount to the ceiling so we wouldn't keep bashing our heads on the light when we walked through there.  I really like the more modern options, something along the lines of this:

Shades of Light

I also wanted to stay far, far away from the "boob lights".  You know the ones I'm talking about right?

Lowes

You see what I mean by "boob light" now?  They're cheap though, which is why they're used so much.  I like the modern lights much better but they're much more expensive.  The Shades of Light lamp pictured above is $99, and the least expensive option I could find from Lowes was still $74.  Not terrible but more than we wanted to spend.  So I searched my favorite blogs for an inexpensive DIY alternative.  There are several good options out there, but my favorite (mainly because it seemed to be the simplest) was from Young House Love:

Yep, that's a lampshade hanging from the ceiling.  They just unscrewed the light bulb, slipped the shade over it, and screwed the bulb back in.  It's the same way you would put a lampshade on a lamp but upside down.  Looks pretty easy to me!  So we went out shopping for our own lampshade but it turns out it wasn't quite so easy.  All of the shades we found had too small of a ring where the light bulb should go.  So we kept looking and came across a shade from HomeGoods that looked like it could work with a little bit of creativity.  My handy hubby bought a harp from Target and rigged it to the basic light plate from Home Depot.  Basically he drilled out the existing holes in the light plate so that they would be big enough for the rods of the harp to fit through.  He also added a washer to the light bulb screw so that it would keep the whole fixture in place.  Here's what that looked like:

Then we just added the lampshade and the light bulb and ta-da! Brand new ceiling light!

Yes, it still kind of looks light a lampshade on the ceiling, but I like it! I love the geometric print and I love that the top and bottom of the shade are the same diameter.  It makes it look slightly less like a lampshade and more like a real ceiling light, right? My favorite part is how inexpensive it is though.  Here's the cost breakdown:
                                Light plate:     $1.38
                                Harp:             $6.19
                                Lamp shade:  $16.99
                               __________________
                                Total:             $24.56

So for less than $25 plus the cost of the light bulb we have a new, unique, and modern flush mount ceiling light!