DIY Basket light

Part of remodeling our house means getting new lights for every room. When we moved into the house there were no overhead lights other than in the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. There were ceiling fans in most of the rooms, but oddly, none of them had lights.

One of the first things we did when we moved in was pour concrete to fill the sunken living room; this allowed us to rearrange the pre-defined rooms to swap the living room and dining room. That required a new light to be ran so we could have a light over the dining room table. Luckily, my dad was able to run the electrical and we've had the electrical box awaiting its new light for a couple of weeks.

I scoured the internet and pinned dozens of lights to my pinterest. There's so much to consider: overall style, metal color, light output, size, etc.

I fell in love with this light, but for $475 I didn't think we could make that work (we are on a budget, after all, and this is one light out of 9 we need to replace relatively soon.)

I went back to searching the internet for something else, but kept coming back to this. I thought through how I might be able to make it, it seems simple: basket + three-lamp light= fancy light that makes me happy.

I found the PERFECT basket online at Joann's, but it was sold out online and in store. I had all but given up when I randomly spotted THE basket at my local Joann's (and screamed in Nicole's ear because we were on the phone, sorry Nicole!).

The baskets were marked 40% off and I had a coupon, so this came home with me for $48!! (Normally I would scoff at a $48 basket. But when it's the basket of your light-making dreams, you splurge)

(Rootbeer for scale, it's a big basket)

I was so in love with the basket that I HAD to find the perfect light. I looked at tons, and made Scott look at probably 10 that I had narrowed it down to, and we settled on the Amy 3 Light Pendent from Element + Artifact.

I ordered the light, on special for Black Friday for $135.15 with shipping.

My light arrived broken, so I had to contact their customer service for a replacement.

Within a week a new one was shipped out and I waited (not so) patiently for it to arrive. The day it was delivered Scott ripped open the package, grabbed the basket, and we got to work.

If you're wanting to make your own, here's what you'll need:

Supplies

If you aren't using the same light and basket that I am (you can really use any light/basket you like), make sure the diameter of your basket is slightly larger that the diameter of your light.

Step 1) Determine how large the hole needs to be in your basket.

Check out the way the light hangs, you need something inside of the basket to hold it up. Our light had three prongs at the top that the basket could sit on, so only this little piece needed to be through the basket:

Step 2) Cut the hole in the bottom of the basket. We just had a small piece that needed to go through the basket, so it seemed simple, but this was still tough for us. The basket I chose had a metal "frame" that was welded together at the bottom.

We started with side cutters and cut the rattan over the center, found the metal and tried using a drill and a multitool before breaking out the hacksaw.