DIY Battery Pendant Light: No Outlet Required!

8 Materials
$8
2 Days
Easy

When designing my girls’ bedroom recently, I ran into an issue with needing to add a lamp where there was no outlet nearby. Has that ever happened to you? This frustrating situation is all too common!

So, what are you supposed to do when you need a light, but the nearest outlet is across the room? Easy — DIY a battery-powered pendant light!  Here's how to make a glamorous gold dipped version for less than $10.

Mix glue and water


The base of this pendant lamp will be similar to a yarn globe lamp. Typically, you'd mix glue and water at a 1:1 ratio but you'll want to create a translucent shell in this case to act as a diffuser. So for this lamp, mix a 2:1 ratio of glue to water. 

Drop the jute string into the glue mixture


Next, drop the ball of jute string into the container of glue and water. As you pull the string out to wrap the play ball, it will pick up a generous coat of glue.


Note: You won’t end up using all of the string but if you make the glue and water mixture in a plastic screw top container, you can save it for another project!

Draw a guide on your ball


To keep everything centered, use the inflation hole as the center point for the top opening of the shade.


Then, measure down from the center seam of the ball and make a dot every few inches around the entire circumference.


Finally, connect those dots. This is where the bottom edge of your shade will be.


For mine, I used an 8.5″ play ball and marked 2″ down from the center seam of the ball.

Wrap the ball with the string


Using the glue-soaked jute string, wrap your ball in a random, overlapping pattern. 

The shade will rest on top of the puck light, so you need to leave an opening at the top large enough to pass the hanging string through but smaller than the circumference of your puck light.


I opted to do this tight coil pattern at the top to mask the light casing, but that’s purely a preference thing.


At the bottom, try to generally align your string to the mark you made around the ball. We want the shade to be an organic shape, so basically symmetrical is good enough. Don't worry about perfection.

Let dry for 24-48 hours


Set the ball on a small bowl and put someplace out of the way. Be sure the bowl is small enough that the string isn't touching it, otherwise, the shade will dry stuck to the bowl.

Deflate or pop the ball


Once the jute string is completely dry, pop or deflate the play ball. 


Once the ball has deflated, it will pull away from the shade mostly on its own. Gently pull the ball away from any areas that are still stuck (it will come away very easily).


The glue shell will have some holes — that’s what you want! We’re going for sort of a wasp nest look, like something you’d find in a garden or in the woods.

Glue string to the puck light


Starting at the outside edge, hot glue the jute string in a tight coil on the bottom of the puck light. 


You won’t see much of this piece, so if your glue work is a little messy (like mine) it’s totally ok.


Aim to end the coil as close to the center as possible. This is the only step where I’d urge precision. The closer to the center it is, the straighter the pendant light will hang.

The string that’s now attached to the puck light will be threaded from the underside of the shade, through that top opening you created.


The shade will rest on the light and gravity will hold it in place. When you need to change the batteries, you can just slide the shade up to access the puck light!

Spray paint the shade gold (optional)


Spray the pendant light shade gold. This step is optional since most of the lamp will end up covered in gold leaf, but I like the depth of color the gold on gold treatment adds.

Cover the shade entirely in gold leaf


Use a spray adhesive to attach the gold leaf. This isn't the traditional way to apply gold leaf, but the spray adhesive gets into all the nooks and crannies that might be difficult to reach with a brush.

Spray a small section of the shade with the adhesive and begin to attach the gold leaf. Take care not to touch the leaf if you can help it (it sticks to everything and tears easily).


Gently fold back one of the separating sheets of paper and hold the entire book of gold by the folded end. Press the gold leaf onto the sticky surface of the shade, still holding on to the whole book.


If the leaf tears at this point it’s fine. You just want to get as much of it onto the shade as possible.

Use a chip brush to press and tap the gold leaf into all the cracks and crevices then gently brush off the excess leaf.


Continue with this process until your entire shade is covered.

Complete!


Once the shade is covered in gold leaf, thread the pauck light back through the top opening and hang. This is very light weight so you could tie it to a cup hook screwed into the ceiling, onto a more decorative hook -- basically anywhere.


I think it would be such a cool statement above a desk or a dining room table to supplement to the other ceiling lights in the room.

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Brianna at Bloom in the Black
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 10 questions
  • Donna Donna on Jul 20, 2020

    does this give off enough light to be able to read by?

  • Chrystal Dugger Chrystal Dugger on Jan 10, 2021

    I love this. Beautiful job. How did you hang it from your ceiling? Sorry if I missed that.

  • DJ DJ on Jan 10, 2021

    I understand that the puck light is located inside the shade, at the top, but how does the jute pendant thing work? Are you putting a small hole at the top of the ball(oon), prior to inserting the light? Please clarify. Thanks!

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4 of 21 comments
  • Doreen Kennedy Doreen Kennedy on Mar 10, 2021

    I love your take on twine lampshades. I think it would be a great shade for electric pendant light too.

  • Nancollards Nancollards on Mar 23, 2021

    Brianna, thanks very much for the perfect style of and solution all in one, truly! I love string art ,especially gold leaf, and have 2 places in my living room that need light with no available outlets. Also an area that has an outlet, but for some reason I keep not buying a tall floor lamp. I love and appreciate your lamp very much. And I get to craft it 😁 I've looked at many ideas and yours wins for Show and Detail. So easy too!

    "Love Your Show " , Nan

    P.s. grateful that HomeTalk is still showing your craft 9 months later.

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