How to make a floating tea light holder

Hello my sweets,

Are you ready for it?

Really?

Wanna see what else I did with my old thrifted lamp?

Right! Today’s project brings more light into our lives.

 

 

The first project I made from my old lamp was a turning the wooden lamp base into a candle stick. The second project involved the metal frame of the lampshade that has been turned into a topiary. This third project repurposes another part of the lampshade frame, and I turned that into a floating tea light holder.

 

 

Looks nice doesn’t it! And it was so easy and fast, it was almost ridiculous.

Want to know how I made it? Read on…..

 

 

Remember that lampshade? I had to cut it in three parts to free up my topiary frame. Which left me with some odd bits. For this project I used the part of the shade that is normally in the middle and that contains the socket for the light bulb.

I almost immediately knew how I could use that part. 

I have seen these floating tea light holders in decor stores all over the place. Usually it is actually the container that is the main object and it is sold as a lantern. I have been often tempted to buy one of those, but one can only buy so many cute things – just because they are cute – and not go bankrupt. So when I saw that leftover bit of my lamp frame the idea came quickly, to just make myself what I hadn’t allowed myself to buy.

 

As serendipity had it, I had the perfect vase for it. 

To make the floating tea light holder there were only a few easy steps. 

The first one involved some brute force. I used my work wrench as a set of extra strong hands and with pliers twisted the ends of the metal bit into hooks. 

Then all I had to do is paint it white and it was basically finished. 

 

 

The hole in the middle of the contraption proved to be just a bit too big for a regular tea light. But it is the perfect size for an extra large tea light. 

 

 

The only things I added was two little rubber dots (leftover from an Ikea build I think) that I cut down a bit to make sure the tea light was level. (Look carefully in the picture above and you can just see one).

Staging and photographing this project took more time than making it.

 

 

Talking about staging. I am sure you can easily imagine that I am going to have fun with this one. Since the flame is high up it is perfectly safe to add things to the bottom of the vase. I can imagine shells in summer, pine cones in Fall, and ornaments for Christmas looking good in there. 

I love it when I can move a project through the seasons. 

 

You know what else I love about this? The floating tea light holder is actually a kind of lift. Which makes it so easy to light the candle and get it in the container without burning my fingers.

Yep, I would call this a successful repurpose. 

What do you think?