About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 15h00

with colorful decoupage lamp base. :D
so, this isnt exactly an original idea of mine. i was inspired by the drinking straw starbusrt hanging light fixture by mark montano on this site and went looking for something similar and i found this lampshade on another DIY website and decided i NEEDED to make/have it! :) it was more of a challenge than i thought it was gonna be. it took me a couple days to get it done, working a few hours at a time. the decoupage on the lamp base was a piece of cake, though. haha :) i love the end result, though and would love to see your version!

Posted by BreeXI from U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, United States • Published 1st June 2011 • See BreeXI's 6 projects »

Print • Embed

James A. commented on Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 11 Aug 09:43
Esteph H. commented on Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 13 Jul 07:05
Esteph H. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 13 Jul 07:05
Georgia favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 30 Jan 16:16
Karen D. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 06 Oct 01:11
Jessica N. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 18 Mar 19:21
scarlett b. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 09 Feb 19:34
erin s. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 16 Dec 01:55
Annemarie B. favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 30 Nov 13:32
Anna Bean favorited Sweet Bendy Straw Lamp 18 Sep 05:09

Step 1
take your old lamp shade and remove the boring fabric, leaving just the ring frame.
Step 2
attach the hardware cloth around the top ring of the lamp shade skeleton with wire (you can use the wire the hardware cloth came wrapped in).

<--that's hardware cloth. :)
Step 3
using the wire cutters, cut off the excess hardware cloth at the end of the top lamp shade ring. you then can decide how long you want your lamp to be and cut the wire off at that point. note: the longer the shade, the more straws you'll need.
Step 4
wire the loose ends of the hardware cloth together, again using the wire the cloth came wrapped in and you have your straw lamp shade skeleton!
Step 5
now for the straws. CUT THEM IN HALF. all of them. and don't worry about making them all perfect. the different lengths will make it look pretty cool. you will end up with a massive pile of bendy straw halves on your floor. that's a good thing. you'll need em.
Step 6
after all your straws are halved, it's time to start attaching them to your shade. starting from the inside of the shade, fold each straw half in half and wrap around the hardware cloth. do this FOUR TIMES for EACH 1/2 inch opening. at times it may seem totally impossible. not gonna lie. but it's possible. sometimes it needs a little bit of elbow grease to jam them in there, especially when you're getting closer to getting finished.
Step 7
do this over and over. and over. and over. and over and over and over and over. and over.
Step 8
hang in there. keep inserting the straws. YOU CAN DO IT! :)
Step 9
TA DA! all the 1/2 holes are filled with four straw halves. you did it!
Step 10
now it's time to light it up. :) do this however you wanna. set a candle night light underneath and make it a table lamp. invest in a pendant light kit and hang it from your ceiling. i decided to attach mine to the old lamp the shade came on and added a little more color to make it a table lamp. get creative here. :) enjoy!

Versions

+ Add your version

Posted by

m

Posted by

LivingDeadGirl

Comments

James A. · Melbourne, Victoria, AU 11th August 2015

i love this straw lamp. this is awesome

Esteph H. · Melbourne, Victoria, AU 13th July 2015

this is awesome

Luisa S. 29th September 2011

its amazing!!!!!!

How many straws did you used???? its super cute =)

BreeXI · U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, US · 6 projects 5th June 2011

nope, im using a 100 watt lightbulb and it's perfectly fine.

the width of the shade keeps the heat far enough away from it. so it's alright! im glad you like it!

groovylittlegirl · 5 projects 5th June 2011

Woooooowwwwww thats amazing! Totally trying this sometime! One question though - do you need to spray the lampshade with anything to stop it catching fire/melting? Just wondering before I start....

Gone Neko · Milan, Lombardy, IT · 29 projects 4th June 2011

Awesome!! *____*

Jet H. · Haarlem, North Holland, NL · 108 projects 2nd June 2011

awesome i saw something like this but they used for this a sort of webbing net, which was not available in holland.
so i thought perhaps i can find something out for myself, but you have such a smart solution, soooo thank you very much for sharing this and the great tute as well.
love it!!!!;-D

BreeXI · U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, US · 6 projects 1st June 2011

for the base of the lamp, you'll need:
mod podge
pieces of tissue paper (any colors you want)
and a paint brush.
it's really easy. just paint a layer of mod podge on the entire base and place your tissue pieces however you want em. cover the whole thing with the pieces and let it dry. once it's totally dry, go over it again with mod podge to seal it. easiest part of the whole project

im sososo glad you guys like it! i worked my ass off on this thing!