$10 DIY Schoolhouse Light

I love-- nay, adore, schoolhouse-style light fixtures. How's that for a strong statement?

I love the vintage styling, and I have lots of fun "Windows shopping" at Schoolhouse Electric's website and imagining how I'll make my kitchen over when my husband gives me the green light to start rackin' up cabinet and backsplash bills.

(Haha, did you get it? Window shopping? Windows...operating...system...? Bah.)

I desperately wanted some cute lights for my unfortunate laundry room, but I knew I couldn't justify even $40 or $50 for a simple fixture when I needed two of them, and they would be living in my basement laundry room (which very rarely receives visitors).

This is what I was working with beforehand:

We had several of these in our basement, and I loathe them. They kept burning out and I'd be left with a dark room because the other lights were pointed in random directions, not to mention there was insulation sticking out of the top of them and a random streak of aqua paint. Don't ask me how that paint got on there, I knew I was a messy painter but I had know idea I was that messy. Yikes.

I was at Lowe's shopping for paint for my boys' closet makeover when I saw this replacement schoolhouse globe. Five dollars? I'll take two, thankyouverymuch.

I went looking for the cheapest flushmount light fixture with a tallish base that I could find, and I stumbled across this little beauty:

This was also five dollars and some change, so after I checked to make sure the globe would fit with the base, into my cart went two -- all the while wondering who buys lights with crazy textured acorn-y glass shades.

I brought them home, used a little oil-rubbed bronze spray paint magic on the bases, hung them (making sure to stick all the insulation inside the fixture, of course) and voila!

Just you wait 'til I get rid of the nasty ceiling panels and put something darling like baseboard up there. And, you know... sort out the rest of the entirely unfortunate laundry room. Then it will be fabulous!

Linking to Tatertots and Jello, Be Different Act Normal, SAS Interiors/Green Door Designs, Under the Table and Dreaming, The DIY Show Off, The Shabby Nest, Finding Fabulous, Just a Girl, The Lettered Cottage, Vintage Revivals