I 'Heart' Paper Lighting

In all the time we have been in our house the one thing that we haven't ever really tackled were our hardly bright enough, light fittings. We have lurched from one Ikea lamp to another, always complaining about the house being too dark, especially during the endless winters, yet never feeling decisive enough to invest in a stunning Danish design icon to hang in the window. Mostly because we still live with the "what if the children damage it with a Nerf/football/marble/elbow/conker" etc etc but also because it has taken me a while to feel confident enough to embrace my own style. Thanks to my Pinterest addiction and a general absorption of Danish design I am very happily trailing my way through the auction houses and second hand websites in my search for furniture that not only fits our lives but that tells a story too.

Yet the lights remain a problem. I haven't yet bought any second hand lighting, the thought of rewiring puts me off purchasing too good of a bargain. So this week feeling in need of a creative challenge to distract me from the school holiday's I set about recycling a very standard Ikea paper globe shade.

All it took was one old book, a left over from the Paper Flower Wreath. A fully loaded hot glue gun and a large heart punch that I had ordered to use for my wedding decorations. The rest was simple really and just took a little patience on my behalf and perhaps slightly more from the boys. They actually helped too, taking it in turns to punch out the pages from the book as and when we ran out.

The boys and I were so excited by the finished product, we all totally love it and had to take it in turns to switch it on and off. It looks ever so slightly reminiscent of the iconic Danish PH Artichoke but done completely in our own way with our own story. In fact we loved it so much that the very next day we turned the hearts upside down and covered our very dilapidated corner lamp too.

There is just one dimly lit problem to our new lighting art works, they are indeed more work of art than lighting. We still need new light fittings in order for us to be able to appreciate the now beautiful old ones.