DIY Pendant Light Shutters

Oh my this was such a quick and easy project, yet I love them so very much. I have been getting a lot of people asking me to do some “renter friendly” DIY’s since we have lived in this historic rental for the past 6 months after we sold our home here in NC. We have been decorating our rental like crazy as you can see from our posts from the past few months & they are all rental friendly. I have to say though, our homeowners of this house have let us do a few things like the sunroom makeover, & soon we have another fun room makeover coming your way too! Today I wanted to share with you a way that you can add good looking lighting to your home without putting some new holes in the wall or messing with electricity with these DIY pendant light shutters. Of course this isn’t just for renters, it’s also for people who appreciate an easy fun DIY project & some pretty lighting. It all started when we got these two pendants from Kenroy…

The new pendants had us dreaming of adding lighting in our rental, but we had to get creative. We put our DIY shutter pendants on our TV stand, but they would work great anywhere extra lighting is needed. This spot is great since the pendants swivel we can use them as reading lamps in the corner. Want to know how we made these simple babies?

Ok, let’s start with how to construct the DIY shutter:

What you need:

3 large Boards {6 if you make two shutters}
2 small boards {4 if you are making two.}
screws
drill
pendants {we found ours here.}
Stain
Paint
Paintbrush

Place 3 boards side by side. We just used scrap boards we had & cut them all to the same size. About 48″ high & 22″ wide when put together.
Permanently attach these boards with a pair of cross boards (one at the top and one at the bottom), this will create the look of the shutter. These boards were also scrap pieces that we cut to 22″ to fit across the  three boards. Super easy!

Next was the staining & painting process. I stained the shutters using Minwax wipes in the color walnut. After the stain dried I dry brushed the shutters with a lovely gray. If you want a tutorial on dry brushing let me know & I can do one for you!

Mounting the Light and feeding the plug:

Detach the wires from the base of the pendant light by unscrewing the wire nuts, separating the pendant light from the wires and plug. Drill a hole wide enough to feed the wire through from the back allows the plug to be plugged in without exposing the wires for the lamp. Feed the wire and re-attach them the base of the lamp. Mount the pendent base to the boards, as you would a normal wall. Plug it in and it is ready. 

We are loving our new additions to our media stand. A couple of things, we usually don’t have the lights on while watching TV, but have before & it doesn’t mess with the visibility of the TV. Also, these shutters would be great hung on the wall as well, but since we are renting, setting them on the stand was idea for us. I can picture these shutters on nightstands too, the possibilities are really endless. If you end up making this project be sure to share it with me! What do you think of our DIY shutter pendants? Let me know in the comments below, find me on Facebook, & chat with me on Instagram!

 

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