Lighting

Romance in Style: Shabby Chic Lighting Ideas

The Definition of Shabby Chic: Chandeliers

When people think of the shabby chic style, they think of white and pastel shade, drapes and chandeliers. A chandelier is a statement piece in any shabby chic room. It really sets the style tone for the space, and is a must have piece when it comes to shabby chic lighting.

There are a few design options when it comes to choosing a chandelier for a room. There are the more French antique chandeliers, just like the one in picture (1). Or there are more modern shabby chic chandeliers (2), with all the metal parts painted over.

You’ve also got chandeliers that are decorated with flowers, lamp shades (3), and plants (4). Each creating a different twist on the shabby chic style. If you want a more toned down and refined look, then a mini chandelier is the way to go – just like the one in picture (5).

There are also a few ways to create your own personalised DIY chandelier. Hanging icicle/fairy lights on a hula hoop creates a string light chandelier. Strands of acrylic crystals can be hung around existing ceiling lights (6) using a wire wreath – DIY instructions here.

Having a chandelier is a major part in creating a shabby chic styled room. But not everyone can start changing their ceiling lights. An alternative would be to use chandelier style table and floor lamps (7). The ones below can be bought from amazon. The floor lamp in picture (8) is an upcycled DIY project, which you can follow along with here

Pink Silk Jewel Lamp Shade: $45 Amazon | Vanilla Twist Lamp Shade: $43 Amazon

Downbridge Floor Lamp: $119 Amazon

Barn Lighting Fixtures

For more wall or ceiling shabby chic light fixtures, have a look at barn lights. These have a vintage style to them, and come in white, galvanized, or pastel colored. Barn Light Electric is a great place for these kinds of lights.

Mint Wall Lamp: $216 Barn Light Electric | Homestead Pendant Light: $109 Barn Light Electric

Paper Lanterns

Paper lanterns are another way to add some whimsy to a room. For a shabby chic room you will want to use white, pastel (pink, mint), or the paper lanterns with a floral pattern on them. You can just have one hanging down and lighting the room, or you can create a paper lantern chandelier (multiple paper lanterns hanging down with one light in the middle lighting them all up).

Have you seen all the DIY projects that can be done with a paper lantern [post coming soon]? Paper lanterns make great bases for lighting projects. People have glued vintage maps onto them, butterfly cutouts (9), or thousands of coffee filters on them to create a fluffy lamp.

Elegance in Fabric

A shabby chic room is soft, meaning it has a lot of fabric around the room. From lace curtains (Window Treatment Style: Shabby Chic Curtains, Rods, and Tie Backs), to quilted blankets. Fabric can also be used when it comes to lighting the room.

In the day you’ll want to have as much sunlight bathing the room as possible. This natural lighting mixed with hanging lace makes for a great combination, creating a soft and diffused glow in the room. You can do this by hanging up lace curtains, or hang lace drapes/canopy down from the ceiling.

String lights can be used at night. Get the LED ones as they give off less heat. Now you can wrap the lace or a light fabric around the string lights to create a soft glow at night (10).

Whimsical Table Lighting

Above I talked about having a chandelier style table or floor lamp. Other lamp ideas include: using those formal and traditional style lamp shades – seen in picture (11). How about using a bird cage to create a unique lamp (12) (Home Decor Ideas: Using Bird Cages)? Or there are lamps in the style of a candle lantern.

Candles also create elegant lighting. You can find some great looking shabby chic style candle stands – either with acrylic jewels, chipped painted, or go for the antique metal French candle stands. If you are worried about the fire hazard, fill up a bowl with water and use floating candles. Or put a candle into a vintage style jar. Battery powered candles can also be used. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12

More Shabby Chic Mood Boards:

March 7, 2014 in Design Styles, Lighting

Style Guide: Vintage Lighting Ideas

Light fixtures are often overlooked when it comes to a room’s style. Yet they make a big impact on the look and feel of a space. It can be hard to find a perfectly styled piece but here are some vintage lighting ideas that will help you transform your space.

Style Ideas

Color: When it comes to color choice, pastel shaded light fixtures will look great in a vintage styled room. The lighting fixtures themselves don’t even have to be vintage looking, as long as they are pastel. Colors like mint, baby blue, and yellow. A pastel colored paper lantern makes for a whimsical addition to any room (1).

Styles: See if you can find enamelled lights. Barn lights are great for this as you can find enamel pendant and wall lights – in pastel colors. For pendant lighting you have pancake lights seen in the kitchen pictures (2) and (3). On the walls you have gooseneck lights seen in the bathroom in picture (4). And for desks you’ve got anglepoise lamps (5).

Barn lighting would be the best style of lights to go for. An alternative would be vintage industrial or nautical lights.

Ceiling Medallions: There is the option of adding a ceiling medallion to frame any ceiling lights you have. Even if you have recessed lights. For pictures and ideas, have a look at my post here: Design Ideas for Decorative Ceiling Medallions.

Quick Styling Ideas and Upgrades

Some ways to quickly transform your lighting to a vintage style include: using Edison bulbs (6). For the coffee table, bedroom side tables, or dining room centerpiece – vintage style candle stands or lanterns can be used to decorate the space. Or how about using old school glass oil lanterns outdoors (7) – fuelled by citronella oil or battery powered candles. Mason jars can also be used to house candles.

When it comes to lamp shades, you want to go with fabric coned ones, with decorative edges – just like the lamp shades in picture (8).

Grand ol Chandeliers

A gorgeous chandelier makes for a grand statement piece in any room. There are the more traditional and formal crystal chandeliers with the arms reaching out. Or there are other more compact and mini vintage chandeliers (9).

DIY Ideas

Doilies can be used to create unique looking hanging lamps, just like in picture (10). Another creative idea is to fit vintage style crown molding (11) a few inches below the ceiling. This leaves space for lights to be fitted above – creating soft glowing cove lighting (The Beauty of Using Cove Lighting: Design and Ideas).

String lights are not really vintage, but they can be hung indoors to create a whimsical feel (Home Decor Ideas: Beautiful Ways to Use String Lights Indoors). For a more vintage vibe, use the Edison bulb version seen below. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11

1 Gooseneck $188 Barn Light Electric | 2 Pancake $153 Barn Light Electric

3 Pancake $78 Amazon | 4 Swingarm $27 Amazon | 5 Banker $38 Amazon

6 String Light $145 Restoration Hardware | 7 Edison $8.84 Amazon | 8 Lamp $139 Amazon

DIY Pendant Light Ideas: From Paper Lanterns To Concrete Lamps

The good thing about most of the DIY pendant light ideas shown in the mood board above, is that they don’t require any special wiring. Making them easy and simple home decor projects.

A Wrap Around

Veneer strips, twine, and doilies are some of the materials that can be used to wrap around a pendant light to make creative and beautiful DIY hanging lamp shades. You can follow along with the veneer DIY project seen in picture (1) here.

The DIY string lamp chandelier seen in the outdoor picture (2) can be adapted to have a hanging light fitted inside just like the veneer project. The technique used to create the string lanterns can also be done with other materials other than string to create different styled lights. Balloons were used to create the round shape. Twine that was dipped in cornstarch was then wrapped around the balloon. The twine hardens and is set in place. The balloon can be popped and removed – follow along with the step by step instructions here. A similar technique can be done with doily patterns seen in picture (3).

For DIY string light ideas have a look at my mood board posts here:

Paper Lanterns

A paper lantern makes for a great DIY pendant lamp base. I’ve seen people glue circle cut outs of maps, geometric cut outs, and even playing cards to a paper lantern, creating their own homemade pendant lights. The DIY project by Nichole in picture (4) uses a large paper lantern and coffee filters to create one big fluff ball of a light. It is one time consuming project though, taking around 10 hours or so to glue the 1000 coffee filters one by one.

Hang a number of paper lanterns in a group, at different heights, to create a paper lantern chandelier. You could have string lights fed into the lanterns, or have one pendant light hanging in the middle of the ensemble to light it all up.

A simple and and quick paper lantern project is to create an ombre effect – just like the lantern in picture (5). This can be done by either dip dying the paper lantern or using spray paint to progressively add color to the white lantern.

Going Ombre Again

If you can find yourself some snow globe like pendant lights, there is another ombre/gradient lighting project you can do. Over on Design Love Fest there is a tutorial on how to elegantly spray an ombre color palette onto white glass pendant lamp shades (6).

Concrete and Bottles

Ben over on Homemade Modern used soda and water bottles to create simple concrete molds – creating the industrial chic pendant lamps seen in picture (7).

For DIY lamp ideas have a look at my mood board post here: DIY Lamp Ideas: From Recycling Felt to Dip Dyed Shades.

DIY Lamp Ideas: From Recycling Felt to Dip Dyed Shades

From designer toy lamps to creating your own mini township, here are the most creative DIY lamp ideas around.

Modifying Lamps

The Toy Lamp by Ryan McElhinney, seen in picture (1), is one incredible designer piece. Something similar can be made by taking old children’s toys and artfully glue gunning them to an existing lamp. For a great design try and choose paint colors that match or contrast the lamp well. Gold or Silver and black create a sleek modern design. For a more funky color scheme use bright bold colors: like yellow spray painted toys with an orange lamp. Light blue spray painted toys with a dark blue lamp.

The dip dyed DIY lamp shade by Design*Sponge is a simple project to do, but looks crazy great (2). For more home decor dip dying project ideas have a look at my mood board post here. Taking a Sharpie marker to a lamp is a creative and simple way of upcycling an old lamp (3) – by BHG. For more sharpie home DIY ideas, look here.

New Materials

How about using different materials to create your own homemade lamp. The organic flowing ribbon lamp by Sara Bergano is a bit of a complex DIY undertaking as it requires some soldering and wiring work. But by using scrap felt pieces and LED lights, Sara was able to create a lamp that is flexible and can be moulded to different shapes – and can be used as a floor, table, or even as a pendant lamp (4).

The DIY table lamp by Rob Edwards seen in picture (5) looks like it would be a complicated project, or something you could only buy at the store. But the process Rob used to create this is quite easy. The only major tool needed was a heat gun, which was used to bend the scrap acrylic to his liking. All that was left to do was to stick on the veneer and the IKEA LED lights.

Taking an IKEA FAX lamp shade, along with strips of teak wood, a few hardware pieces and concrete, Minni was able to create her own industrial style DIY desk lamp (6). Jump over to their site for the step by step guide.

DIY Paper Lamp Shade Ideas

Paper is a material that can be easily turned into a DIY lamp. Try and use LED lights for these projects as these will give off less heat.

Only a sheet of paper and simple cut and fold techniques were used to create the geometric origami style paper lamp in picture (7). You can follow along with Drew’s DIY guide here.

Another fun DIY lamp project is to use print outs of houses to create your own little lamp town – just like in picture (8), by Claire.

String Lights

String lights are inexpensive and flexible light fixtures. I’ve seen them stuffed in bird cages, and wine bottles (9 by Wit & Whistle) to create soft glowing lamps. Over on A Merry Mishap, string lights were weaved into a large rope to create a special kind of floor lamp (10).

For more DIY string light ideas have a look at these mood board posts: