March 19, 2024

Make a Trendy Woven Pendant Lamp Using a Basket, Save Hundreds

Whether you’re talking wicker chairs or round jute rugs, natural fiber furnishings seem to be everywhere. Even in lighting: Anthropologie carries a tiered rattan pendant for $528, a wrapped jute chandelier for $258, even a basket-weave sconce with twinkly little ornaments sprucing it up.

All are equal parts casual and elegant, like your very favorite basket flipped over and turned into a ceiling light.

Which, come to think of it, is probably a DIY you could actually pull off. First you’ll need a woven basket, though any sort of natural fiber container could work. Chris Bletzer, the designer whose retro NYC townhouse had us all in a tizzy this spring, made a pendant from an antique bowl he found at a flea market.

Then you’ll need a few hours and just two more supplies. Here’s how to fashion a woven pendant light yourself, for way less than you’d spend buying it new.

Supplies You’ll Need

a lightweight, woven basket like this a power drill with bits a pendant light kit

Clockwise from top left:
SHOP NOW: Seagrass Basket with Handles by Mercury Row, $27, allmodern. com SHOP NOW: Round Open Weave Wall Basket by 626 Vintage, $23, etsy. com SHOP NOW: Braided Basket by Zara Home, £12, zarahome. com
SHOP NOW: White Electrical Cord Swag Kit by World Market, $10, worldmarket. com

How to Make it Happen

First things first, get the basket. This will be the most complicated task you face in your basket lamp DIY: shopping for a container to turn into a pendant lamp. Thankfully, an easy task – if you’ve been inside literally any store recently, you know there’s more cute baskets in the world these days than one could ever hope to find a use for. We recommend something lightweight and permeable, a shallow woven bamboo construction or even a belly basket made of seagrass. The less weight on the bulb kit, the better. Basically, anything you’d like to see hanging from cord in your living (dining, etc. ) room.

Make a hole in the base. Seeing as your basket will be uniquely constructed, this might require drilling or it might just require snipping with sharp shears. Do what needs to be done to make a small hole in the base of the basket, taking care to center it so the thing hangs straight.

Thread the pendant cord through the hole and hang. If you’re smart, you’ll purchase a readymade pendant bulb kit(https://www. worldmarket. com/product/white-electrical-cord-swag-kit. do) for something like $10 from World Market or Amazon. The plug end will need to be threaded through the hole in your basket, so just be sure the opening is big enough for that (but small enough that the bulb end won’t go through it). Alternatively, you can source a hard-wired pendant cord set on Etsy for a bit more money – think, $50 – but that’ll require professional installation as well. Which, you know, is why we recommended the bulb kit. Just thread it through the basket, add a bulb, hang from the ceiling on the included hook, and plug it in.

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