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Awesome Ikea Hack of the Week: Beautiful Pendant Lighting for Apartments

For renters, getting the perfect lighting for your apartment isn’t always easy or cheap. Personal real life story: My bedroom doesn’t have a light in it. Anywhere. It’s horrible. So for those of us who need to DIY our Toronto apartment lighting, we at Toronto Rentals took to the interwebs to find beautiful inspiration that can be done on a budget.

We were inspired by this blog post by The Little Design Corner – problem is, a single pendant light might not take lighting far enough for your humble abode. So we’re blending the image above with a design I spotted in a local shop for a more eye-catching final product.

  1. The parts. You’ll need
  • Strala pendant lamp x 6 – $9.99 each
  • Spray paint, your choice of colour(s)
  • A power bar
  • Something to hang your light fixture from, such as a wooden rack, some scrap wood, pallet boards, driftwood or sturdy branches, which can be suspended safely from the ceiling.
  1. Do it. First, scrap the paper stars from the Strala lamps, or keep them for a future DIY project. Detach the bulbs from the cords, and spray paint each cord in the colour of your choice, being careful not to cover the lightbulb contact point in paint.

Once dry, simply drape the six or so cords around the hanging fixture into a design you like. Make sure the cords have enough length to attach to a power bar, which you can plug into the wall, and use as an on-off switch for the whole light fixture.

Erin Cardone: Born on the Prairies, Erin Cardone grew up knowing there was more to life than canola fields and AAA Alberta Angus. So she escaped, living in Europe and Australia, white-knuckling it through plates of calf brains and raw horse meat, and learning languages she can't remember anymore. After a stint as a jaded, skeptical journalist, she changed tack and began writing rather awesome blogs and showing businesses that advertising is dead, so long live social media, with her businesses Legendary Social Media. She now splits her time between various Canadian cities, Costa Rica and wherever else the wind blows.