I hate throwing things away. My husband would say that makes me a hoarder. But I believe that makes me resourceful ;) I will often hold on to old parts from past projects until I can find another use for them - and sometimes my... resourcefulness... pays off.
Last summer, I scooped up this faceted foyer light at my local ReStore. I liked the look of the brass + bulb components inside and started thinking, maybe I can repurpose them into a DIY sputnik-style chandelier. So I bought the whole kit-and-kaboodle and promptly took it apart.
After disassembling it however, I couldn't bring myself to scrap the faceted lantern. I thought about turning it into a terrarium or a more functional table lamp again [I have a weak-spot for disassembling light fixtures apparently...] but in the end I brought it to our pop-up shop at Sweet Clover Barn and sold it as a dainty umbrella stand.
As for the original "guts" that had inspired the DIY chandelier on my 2016 furniture flip bucket list - well, I held on to those babies for almost a year [much to my minimalist-of-a-husband's dismay]. Until I found this lamp...
Behold! That tall, handsome, square piece of brass pipe that's the perfect length. I finally had all the pieces I needed for the frame of my sputnik light!
But after I had my hands on the brass pipe I needed, I still had the other perfectly-good components of the table lamp to play with - like the 4 decorative pieces of turned wood. After stumbling on a $2 round wooden tray at the thrift store, I soon had a plan for those too: a mid-century modern plant stand.
So just to recap, here's a handy infographic on how one old lantern and one old table lamp came together to make 3 new beautifully functional pieces and nothing was wasted in the process!
I'm still working on the wiring for the sputnik chandelier and [if all goes well] will be sharing the results soon! In the meantime, I'm curious if any of you have created your own diy family trees by repurposing project left-overs. Please share in the comments below!
