DIY Mason Jar Vanity Light
How to inexpensively transform a basic vanity bathroom light into a farmhouse style vanity light using mason jars and spray paint.
Hi y’all! Despite having some technical difficulties this week (sometimes computers get saucy and put up a fight), I’m so excited to be sharing this project with you. If you’re not a Pin-a-holic, you may not know this, but mason jar projects have run rampant. So this one is total white noise in the sea of mason jar awesomeness out there, but I’m stoked to finally have this in our house!
I am bound and determined to change up our builder grade basic materials in our home to make it more “us” and let it have some personality. This project was super duper easy and only cost me 6 bucks! Yup. Cheapo. And I did it in about 20 minutes total (Robert’s installation included)
Supplies used: (Affiliate links are provided below. For more information, see my full disclosure.)
- 2 mason jars (or however many lights your fixture has) – I chose the smaller ones, but the big ones work too.
- Oil rubbed bronze spray paint (This one is my favorite.)
- A Sharpie
- Hammer and 1 nail
- And, of course, your builder grade light fixture (This one and this one are similar to mine and you could buy it already in oil rubbed bronze if you wanted to eliminate some work.)
After detaching the builder grade shades and bulbs and my hubby took the fixture off of the wall (I’m a slave driver, I know), I gave it two coats of the oil rubbed bronze spray paint.
While I waited for the paint to dry, I went to work on the mason jars by using the flange from the fixture (it took me forever to think of what this little do-dah was called) and traced it on the center of the jar lid with the Sharpie. (Please ignore my terrible fingernails. I’m in desperate need of a mani. Mothering a toddler takes priority.)
From here, I just started nailing holes close together around the traced circle. It was easier to keep the lid on the jar.
And here it is all nailed out. No power tools needed! After this step, I painted the lid rings too.
All it took was a little pressure and this little guy popped right out of the lid.
I thought I could just punch it out with my thumb, buuuut I thought wrong. I succeeded, but I paid the price. Don’t be a hero, y’all! Use a screwdriver or something for goodness sake! It is jagged metal, after all. (FYI, all the cool kids wear Snoopy Band-Aids.)
Once the paint was dry and both jar lids were cut out, I had to overcome my hair-brained self to figure out this step. I put the cut jar lid top on first before realizing the lid ring should be the first thing to slide on, so that was crazy difficult to pull off (and my wimpy injured-thumbed self had to pull out her big girl straw and suck it up). So HERE is the order of operations. It’s not that complicated; I just had an airhead moment. Welcome to my world. 🙂
And that was it! I used an Edison bulb to give it a little extra vintage flair. Even though I’m all for saving energy, I despise the day-to-day functionality of energy efficient bulbs. It takes a while for them to warm up, so by the time they’re bright enough to light up our tiny powder room, I’m already leaving and flipping off the switch. Ridonculous. Edison bulb it is.
This little light has so much more personality now! And it’s definitely more “us” than the basic one we had before.
So that’s one more thing we can check off the list for the powder room. One of these days, I’ll have to make the other brushed nickel pieces in here match the finish of our light. And I would loooove to have this faucet in the distant future. Baby steps, Lauren, baby steps.
It’s looking pretty spectacular with my HomeGoods mirror too. 🙂
This project marks the official halfway point of personalizing our downstairs lighting. If you missed it, I already did our foyer and hallway. The kitchen and dining room are next on my radar! I’m a force to be reckoned with when it comes to our lighting lately. Must. make. them. match!
As a little teaser for next week, I wanted to do a small something to give back to you guys for checking in on me and my DIY madness. Y’all are the reason I keep this momentum going.
If you liked this post, check out these other lighting makeovers:
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When looking at your suggestions for a mason jar, you have a regular mouth mason jar for the smaller option, but the wide mouth option for the larger option.
I am attempting to do this, got the smaller option and a regular bulb doesn’t fit inside. Should it be a wide mouth mason jar even for the smaller option?
Also- which Edison light bulb did you use? The ones I purchased are just entirely too big. I’m failing royally at this project so far.
So your tracing the inside of that thing of my jig, right?
Hi! I LOVE this DIY. I just painted mine and would like to use the smaller mason jars like you did but I’m having trouble finding Edison bulbs that fit. Could you send a link for the bulbs? I clinked the link to Lowe’s you had posted for someone else but it just took me to Lowe’s home page. Thanks so much!
I’m so sorry, since we did this project 6 years ago, I have no clue which ones we used! I would just maybe measure your mason jars and then measure the lightbulb. Hope that helps!
Just did mine!! Do you have to worry about the glass getting too hot and break?
Nope! Mason jars are traditionally used in boiling water for canning, so they can stand the heat and pressure. 🙂
Ok I know it’s been like 4 years since you posted this but…I bought a new house a year ago & I sit & stare at my ugly light fixture daily! By the way it’s exsctly like your original light. When I realized this I jumped for joy. I ran across your old post on FB in a collection of how to’s, so it was totally random. Great day for me! And I actually have the right size jars…brand new ones!! Off to upgrade my fixture! Thank you for sharing your idea!!
Coni, THIS IS AWESOME!! Welcome to the blog! As I read the post I imagine you bouncing and skipping away to make this. SO FUN!!