Wood Veneer Pendant Lighting: A Modern Twist on Vintage

Since we moved into our house, I’ve been eagerly waiting to do something with my bare pendant lights hanging in our hallway. As I recently revealed our new painted staircase, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to tackle this project.

I brainstormed a few things and I came up with this brilliant idea to make an ultra sleek pendant out of wood veneer!  I bought all my supplies, tried to put it together and then realized it wasn’t going to work (don’t you hate when that happens?!)

With my frustration on the rise, I scrap my original idea and came up with another one.  Taking all my broken pieces of veneer, I created a pendant shade that matched the look and feel of all the vintage artwork lining my hallway.  To add a modern twist to it, I finished the pendant shades with an amazing colour from Para Paints.

How-To:

1)  Trace the shape of the embroidery hoop on your cross stitch cloth.  Remember to leave an extra half inch around your hoop so you may glue it down. Next find the middle of your hoop and trace the ring from your pendant light kit.  This will be the insert for your light.

2)  Cut everything out. Use your glue gun and secure the edges of your cloth around your embroidery hoop. Make sure it’s nice and snug.

3)  Cut stripes of veneer to the circumference of your hoop and glue down. You want to cover all your edging.

4)  Cut your reminding veneer into 4″ stripes.  I used a variety of different widths as I wanted an old worn out look.

Side Note: If you are painting, this would be a good time to paint all of your veneer.

5) Lay your shade flat on the table and sporadically glue different widths of your veneer around the edge of the inner embroidery hoop.  Keep in mind it’s supposed to look old so the rougher it looks, the better.  You can’t go wrong with this one!

6) Once you’ve completed step 5, take your second hoop and place it inside of your lampshade lining the edge.  Adjust it until it looks leveled to you. Then take your glue gun and secure the veneer to the outside of the embroidery hoop.

7) As I mentioned above, it is best to paint in step 4, however, painting was a last minute decision for me.  After receiving some Para Paints colours for a Christmas project I’m currently working on, I couldn’t help but fall in love with this amazing colour (Spring Sage-PF40). I just had to use it!

8) I began painting the inside of the shade first using a sponge brush.  For any hard to reach places, I used a small paint brush.  I did the same thing for the outside.  To keep intact with my vintage feel, I used a light coat of paint so that the wood grains would show through.

9) Once everything is dry, insert the lamp kit through the hole you’ve made in the top and screw the ring into place. Don’t forget the bulb!

What do you think?  Have you created your owing lighting?

Happy DIY-ing!