If you got a landlord and a lease, then you may not have a lot of choices when it comes to decorating. But we have got design ideas that will help you make their place feel like yours, and every idea is temporary so you will get that deposit back.
Can you believe that this was once a boring room? I made this with a glue gun, fabric and fishing line. Who would have known?
So this really is not the greatest living room to come home to, so I am going to show you two easy lighting projects that are going to help to brighten up this room. Now the first project that we are going to work on is our lantern. The items that you will need include an assortment of paper lanterns, 32 yards of assorted colors of fabric, some screws with hooks on the end of them, a glue gun, some glue sticks, fishing line, 40 watt bulbs, extension cords and light kits.
First thing is to get three of these screw hooks and we are going to climb up a ladder and with the screw, I am going to put it right in the center of the room. Now we are going to do the second one and we are going to put that about six inches from the first one, just kind of eyeball it. And now for number three, I am not putting them in a straight line. I am kind of alternating the space. We do not want it to look uniform.
So I have a light kit here and this is what we are going to use to light up our lantern. So we are going to put a little bulb right in here, and these you can usually get for about $5.00 to $10.00 in most any store. And then we are going to take our light kit and we are going to put that right inside. So we have one down right here and then we are going to go and put it up on one of our hooks.
So we are going to put this right inside of our star lantern. If you do not have any star lanterns, you can always go with different sizes, textures, sky is the limit.
So what are we going to do with these ugly wires? I mean this is not Mardi Gras, we do not we do not want this hanging in the living room. So I am going to show you a trick to covering this up.
I have decided that we are going to hang fabric from the center and create a pinwheel effect, so we are going to use two of these screw hooks and we are going to put them in the ceiling here. So I am putting the second hook in about 12 inches apart and once I have got that, we are going to use clear fishing line about two feet, and we are going to secure the ends onto the hooks. I have a set setup right here. I put another set over there and another set on the firewall, so we are actually going to use four sets for this project.
Now we are moving on to the fabric portion. I have a hot glue gun here because that is a lot quicker than sewing, and I am going to put a straight line of the glue at the end of my fabric here. Now I cut my fabric into four strips and the strips are a little over a foot long, so I am going to take the ends here and I am going to fold it over, and this is going to help give it some more finish. And then I picked a different color fabric to give a little bit more interest and I am going to glue that to the back of our long piece, like so.
So after gluing the fabric together, we are going to tie some ribbon on to the end so that we can hang them up on the hook. So to create a finished look, taking the ends and folding it under and then I am going to tie the ribbon with the free ends on top, just like that.
So we are going to tie the ribbon onto the hook here. The fourth panel that we have, you are going to put a bead of glue and then we are going to take a length of fishing line and we are going to put that inside the fold, and it is going to look just like this. The position of the fabric should be the rough side facing up toward the ceiling.
So I am pulling the fabric up to cover the wires here and I am going to take the end portion of our fabric and I am going to lace it thru the top of this fishing line. And there you have it! A beautiful ceiling escape.
But let me show you another option, a chandelier. We are going to do the same exact thing that we did for our previous project with the hooks and the fishing line. For us, it is already up there. You will be needing a glue gun, extension cord, some Wite-Out, Christmas lights, fishing line, 16 yards of colored organza and we will need some ribbon.
I cut this fabric in half so it is about two feet wide and then organza fabric is kind of sheer. If you do not find an exact organza, just look for a fabric that is kind of sheer, similar to this. We are going to take Christmas lights and we are going to put them inside the organza.
So after you finished gluing the ends, we are going to take some ribbon and we are going to cut about 12 inches off of the roll and we are going to gather organza and our Christmas light and we are going to tie it together. And it is really nice if you can get a ribbon that compliments the fabric that you are using, that way it all blends. Do you see how that looks very nice?
When you have made four of these, you are going to hang them on the hooks. These can also be used for table runners, they can be used as window balances. The ideas are limitless. And another gorgeous ceiling!
Now moving day, all you need to do is unhook your chandelier lights, unscrew the hook, with a little bit of Wite-Out, we will cover up that hole and you will get your deposit back. I am out of here, ciao!
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