When we moved into our new house, we started to look for inexpensive solutions to add “our” character to the house. The kitchen was one of the first places we wanted to work on. Above the kitchen counter were 3 pendant lights that didn’t quite fit our style. We decided that those pendants had to go! But now we needed something more “us” to replace them! If you find yourself looking for pendant light inspiration, let me point you in the right direction! Take a look at this custom DIY Pendant Light and Custom Shade that Jess from East Coast Creative used in her kitchen! Or how about this unique DIY Cage Pendant Light made by Heather over at Whipperberry!
We decided that we wanted to keep the light fixture, but definitely wanted to try something different for the shades. Jacque decided that she wanted to use recycled ball jars in place of the existing glass shades. It didn’t take much convincing for me to jump on board. I loved the idea and thought that jars would make the kitchen really inviting. So, off we went to the Dutch Valley Antique Mall, where we had seen nice collections of jars and lids. For around $20, we had all the materials we needed!
We had all the pieces to the puzzle, but before we could put it together, we needed to modify the lid to accommodate for the light socket base. To do this, first, we took a hammer and broke apart the glass from the inner side of the lid. With the glass out of the way we marked the center of the lid and drilled a pilot hole through it. Next, we placed the tip of a step drill bit into the pilot hole and bored through the lid until we had created an opening that was large enough to pass the lamp socket through. Since we used an enclosed ball jar, we needed to come up with a way to allow the heat from the bulb to dissipate, so we marked and drilled small “vent” holes around the outer edge of the lid.
Next, we secured the light socket to the lid using the existing screw on collar from the original pendant shade. It screws onto the lamp socket housing and holds the lid tightly in place. To finish off the fixture, screw in light bulb into the socket and then screw the lid onto the ball jar base.
And after a total of about 20 minutes of work, here’s the end result!
Cool Jar Pendant Lights
This project proved to be an inexpensive success! With the addition of the ball jar pendant lights, our kitchen finally feels like home!
If you’ve got any questions on how we made the pendant lights, feel free to email us or leave a comment
We’d love to hear what you think!
OMG! What a GREAT idea and it does look lovely and charming!!!
-Kim-
I love the blue colour of your Ball jars. They give a lot of character to your kitchen.
We love them! They definitely made the kitchen feel more welcoming! Thanks for checking out our tutorial!
I love these! I just told my hubby I need to have them in my new house. 🙂 So cute!
Andrea, when you get yours done we'd love to see them! Keep an eye out for our laundry room reveal later this week, we've been hard at work in there too!
Super cute!! I love the way the jars look as lights. So much character now. 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to say so! We absolutely love the way they turned out!
These lights are fabulous! What a GREAT idea! I've been gushing over all of these projects that involve mason jars. I think they bring a true, down-to-earth element to any room. Thank you for popping over at my blog earlier today! It was quite sweet of you to do so.
I love this–I am obsessed with Ball canning jars (the blue ones). I really want to copy this! TFS!
I can promise you won't be disappointed!
These are just awesome!! I hope to see them at my party this week : )
http://www.cherishedbliss.com/2012/02/craft-and-tell_20.html
Thank you! Done and done :o) I love your linky parties!
LOVE LOVE this!!! Enjoying your blog. You have some really great projects! Looking forward to seeing more of them! Now following! Feel free to check out my blog and follow back 🙂
http://fitcraftystylishandhappy.blogspot.com/
Thank you! I have already pinned one recipe from your blog, I cannot wait to try those Baked Chicken Taquitos!
Great 'how to'. I would love to try this.
Penny, new follower!
Thank you and WELCOME!
Love these mason jar lights – wish I could find these blue ones in the UK, they look great. Following from justpaintitwhite.blogspot.com
Happy blogging !
What a bummer that you can't get this color. If you can get the clear ones you could always try staining them. I found a great tutorial a while back … http://bridalbuzz.blogspot.com/2009/01/glass-jars-turned-vintage.html. If you try it let me know how it turns out!
These are awesome! My husband is slowly renovating the old farm house on his family's homeplace that he ended up with. He was considering doing something like this! So glad you posted the tutorial! I'll have to show him your post! They look wonderful! 🙂
So glad you like them too! If you ever make them send us pictures or a link to a blog post we would love to see them!
Glad you joined my newbie party. These are great. See you later!~
Thanks so much! And thank you for doing the newbie party. What a great way for us lil guys to get our name out there!
Coolio. Really.
That is stinkin' cool! Love those jars! I have just a plain bulb literally hanging in my pantry – this may be the perfect place to try this little idea! Thanks so much for sharing – please come back this week to link up again!
Stacey of Embracing Change
Thank you for hosting, you always have the best people to link up, such inspirations!
Love it! I've been meaning to do something with my old jars.
I'd love to see pictures when you/if you make them!
Love the lights!! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your project at Jillify It!
I hope you will come back again next Tuesday to share more of your creations!
Jill
http://www.jillifyit.com
Thanks Jill! I will be happy to share more projects with you! Thanks for hosting 🙂
Great job! I love this tutorial…it looks like a fun project. Megan
I love those lights! I recently bought some Blue Ball jars which I did a post about on my Flea Market Junky blog. The hue of color looks great with the light turned on. Very brilliant idea!
ahhh! These are super cute, and best of all very inexpensive!
What a cool way to utilize these wonderful old jars!I’ve used my old 1/2 gallon jars to make a couple of lamps. I filled the jars with seashells, used lids that were prewired for bulbs and antique shades and I think that they are really nice! I also use most of my old pints, 1/2 pints and quart jars to store dried cranberries, nuts, etc. They look very nice on my countertops.
Betty Jo, those sound like great ideas! We are planning on revisiting the ball jars for projects later on! We love the way they look!
Great idea….I’m going to try this. I’d be willing to bet that this will take me much longer! I’m a novice…but I try!!!
Kim, we’d love to see your lights when your done! Please make sure to email us with some pics! Thanks for stopping in!
These are soooo perfectly amazing! I want them for my own kitchen!!! Love!
Could you add the ball jars to your ceiling fan? That would be a great way to tie the two rooms together.
Angela, that’s a great idea! When we revamp the family room, we’ll revisit that idea!
I absolutely LOVE blue mason jars! Your pendant lights look amazing!
Thanks Kelly, we love them too! They diffuse the light really nicely & they add some needed character to the kitchen!
These are gorgeous! Totally love 🙂 Stopping by from the Best DIY Project of 2012.
So those little holes are enough to diffuse the heat from the lightbulb? I want to make some but would hate to burst the jar. You have had them awhile now, so just wanted to see…
Kathy, the small holes are more then sufficient for “venting” the heat from the bulb. We’ve had ours up for over a year and a half now and haven’t had any problems at all!
What watt bulb do you use and what size jars? I bought some 60 watt Edison bulbs but will likely need to find some large mouth jars or cut the bottom out for ventilation. I just wonder if 60 watt will get too hot though.
love your site. love these jars (i’ve always thought things like this were possible lol)and can’t wait to see the pantry makeover. i hate wasted space and wasted stuff so i come up with lots of ideas, yet i’m just not very crafty (i can’t even make a simple scoop out of a plastic milk jug without seeing it done first) even if it’s originally my idea!! great to see it is possible to do these things. keep up the great stuff!!
p.s. please tell me how you get your husband to be so helpful.
I wanted to let you know I featured this on my blog today! I know my readers will love it, and hopefully hope on over here! Greta tutorial!
http://2crafty4myskirt.blogspot.com/2013/08/feature-friday-diy-mason-jar-lighting.html
Thanks for your great tutorial! We have existing ugly pendants that I want to replace with mason jars. I keep running into the same conundrum where I’m not quite sure how to attach the lid securely with the socket(?) piece that the lightbulb screws into. I believe in other tutorials they have some kind of existing rubber ring or something that secures the mason jar lid to the light socket. Does that even make sense? I was wondering what you used – or if it was already a part of your existing lights. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. Thank you!!
Hey Kristin! Yep, we know exactly what you’re talking about. The pendant light conversion kits we used, came with a “collar” that secured the socket to the ball jar lid. How do your existing pendants secure to the socket? We’ll help figure this out!
I want to do this on my ceiling fan in the kitchen…….but I’m so worried about the heat from the bulb with the glass being closed at the end. I have two huge mason jar lights (that I bought and are reproduction) hanging over my kitchen sink. They are open on the bottom so no problems with the heat. Changing the shades on my ceiling fan to these jars would tie everything in perfectly!!
I’ve been wanting to do this for sometime in my home. I collect these jars along with other antique jars/bottles and this would look great above my sink where we already have a pendant light hanging. It has shade (?) on it that resembles those one would see at a Fazoli’s resturant. I do have one questuion… my galvanized mason jar lids have a hard white piece attached to the lid. I didn’t see that on the bottom of yours in the tutorial. Did you remove it? Was it just not there? If you removed it… How? I haven’t attempted drilling through it.
Ours had them too, we just took a hammer and broke them out before we drilled the air holes.
Would love to do a plug in swag lamp like this, any how tos?
No sorry we don’t.