Experimenting with Lighting

Aug 3

This was a fun prototype. I’ve seen some cool rustic farmhouse light fixtures that were some combination of beams and trendy Edison bulbs. On a whim, I thought, hey, I live on a farm and have some very authentic barn wood. I reclaimed this split fence post (by reclaimed, I mean dragged it out from underneath a shed and loved the way it looked just as it was). It already had that perfect weathered, distressed look that people try so hard to replicate. This is totally authentic.

Next, I went in search of my lighting base. I was working in a space that was going to have to have a swag (ie, there wasn’t a receptacle for a hardwired light in the spot I wanted to hang this). I found this inexpensive lighting fixture on Amazon that seemed like it would be a good start.

Armed with my wood beam, my plain, ugly spider light fixture, and all of the random supplies that call my workshop home, I started playing. I ended up wrapping the black cords of the light fixture with twine - this took a little patience and some superglue, but changed the entire look from weird, cheap and modern to upscale rustic.

With the beam, I wrapped some thick rope around it, attached some cool L-shaped metal brackets with chain fittings, and basically just wrapped and draped the individual lighting cords until they “looked right” (my general measurement of success). I mixed different shaped edison bulbs just to add interest, and voila. A perfectly imperfect light fixture that is unique and brings a smile to my face. This particular light hangs over an eat-in kitchen table and the rest of the space has some more clean-lined, modern lighting mixed in to balance it out.