The Shabby Creek Cottage

Hundreds of ideas for creative ways to eat, make & decorate!

$5 Farmhouse Light: an easy DIY makeover

What do you do when you have a perfectly good light fixture but it’s not your style? Give it a makeover! I’m crushin’ on farmhouse inspired lighting these days, but still have to keep my budget in check (don’t we all?) So what’s a girl to do when she craves high end lighting but wants to do it for just a little moolah? She figures out how to get the look for less! After a quick trip to Lowe’s to find a miraculous and new (to me) thingamajig, I figured how to how transform my cheap (and boring) light to something with style. And did I mention that it was only $5 and it only took 5 mintues? Yeah, that’s the best part!
 
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farmhouse light, schoolhouse light, light fixture, DIY, home decor, budget friendly, budget lighting, cheap lighting, light makeover, light fixture makeover, schoolhouse electric,

See, I told you my old lights were boring. And dirty. Don’t judge, m’kay? I found them at Walmart for less than $10. We’ve had ours a few years, but you can still find them in store or online. They work great, but are just… well…. not me.

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Then I found schoolhouse style replacement globes at Lowe’s for only $5. The DIY angels started singing and I think I may have fainted. I definitely made Mr. SCC stand back and hold them up high so I could look to verify that I loved them. He may or may not have gathered snickers from other fellas roaming around. Good thing he has a deep, unwavering love for me – especially when I ask him to do silly stuff in the middle of man world. I scooped one up and skipped home, knowing that I had a plan.

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He removed the old light fixture from the ceiling and I taped it up, because I wanted the base black instead of white.

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A few coats of chalkboard paint later, the base was black. Why chalkboard spray paint? 1. I had it on hand. B. I really love the color. Works for me!

 
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When it was dry, I put it up and replaced the round globe with the new (and much improved) globe. Ah! It doesn’t take much to make my day – but a $5 five minute DIY farmhouse light always does the trick. Especially when I can upgrade a light I already have to something that screams farmhouse style.

 
 

Filed Under: DIY

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Comments

  1. These are AWESOME!!! Thanks for sharing them. Can you tell me what the diameter is of the neck on the globe? It’s not listed on the website and I’m trying to determine if it will fit on our current fixtures. I know there are more than one standard size for the globe replacements. Thanks again!

    Reply

  6. ok.. i need to pick your brain sometime… i am so over the light fixture i picked out for our kitchen 3 years ago when we moved in but don’t want to spend the money to replace the whole thing. hmmm maybe i have a solution after all. but do you mind if i still contact you?

    Reply

  11. Fabulous idea… I have seen those many times in stores and have often wondered how to use them. I love school house style fixtures – we were so thankful that the previous owners of our home had changed every light fixture in the house over to this style before we bought it. But we still have a fan… hmm, I wonder if it would work to convert a fan with the school house style globe… might have to try that. Thanks for the little tutorial and hint!! It looks so amazing!
    Krista @thehappyhousie.com
    Krista

    Reply

  12. Love it. When I remodeled our kit hen I used farmhouse lights and did the same thing. Painted a plain base and bought a huge school house shade real cheap and I love it. Susan @ throughmyporchwindow.blogspot.com

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  18. Oh my!!! The “Boob” light in my WC needs replacing. This is the greatest idea I’ve seen in a long while. I must go and investigate the possibilities!

    Reply

  20. THANK YOU! I just did this to 6 lights in my home! I was looking at spending at least $30 a fixture replacing these lights! One quick trip to lowe’s and I got rid of the “ugly giant light bulbs”

    Reply

  23. Great idea Gina! Did you sand or rough up the surface of the fixture before spray painting and if so, sand paper, steel wool or what?

    Reply

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