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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Hi _ I’m working on this, love the idea. Do you have any great suggestions for the ugly frosted glass sconces that you removed? Thanks!
Thanks! I saved mine for a while in case I ever changed my mind and wanted to switch back from the mason jars, but I think I eventually donated them. Maybe there’s some brilliant DIY out there for an alternative use for them though. I haven’t really found one yet.
Thank you so much for the directions, easy to follow and the light fixture and even the color came out absolutely perfect!!
Glad it could help, Michelle!
I’ve recently made a hanging light fixture out of an antique blue Ball jar and a wire hanger (for my closet) but I used a pair of heavy, old scissors to cut out the hole. Punched a hole in the center of what I needed gone with a nail to get it started, and used small snips of the scissors to trim out the rest. Much neater and the edges weren’t quite so sharp.
LOVED the way your fixture turned out!
That’s a good idea, Lori! If I try it again, I might have to use that method.
Hi there I LOVE this fixture and decided to try my hand at it! I also found that I have no flange on my builder grade fixture (shade held on with screws, so no threading to even buy a new flange) Wish I had thought of the glue the poster above mentioned! You are both genius! Anywho, I was wondering if you could tell me the brand and size/shape bulb you bought at Lowes, mine all say Amber at our Lowes and are too big to fit, looking online is a bit overwhelming with 9 million different kinds haha. I thought of the LED but I read online they are not for enclosed spaces. Hmmmm! I am positively giddy to finish this and have been showing our contractors my progress, they love it too 😉 Thanks for sharing such a fun project!
Aw I’m so sorry it didn’t work as well for you! These are the bulbs I used: http://fave.co/1KVQIvX Glad it’s working out though!
I have the exact same light fixture over my vanity, and after reading and studying your project last night, I made a special trip to Lowes today and purchased spray paint. I already had the jars (mine are real vintage). However, the bulbs have a smaller connection and there are no flanges!! Any suggestions?? I am determined to do this, love the look. Thanks for sharing!
Oh no! There were no flanges holding the shades on originally? That’s strange. They usually are included with the light. I wonder if you can buy a couple of them separately in the lighting department. I found some on Amazon. Here’s one but I’d double check that the measurements will fit your light: http://amzn.to/1ikdEex Hope that helps!
My fixture doesn’t have flanges either. Was anyone able to bypass this and get it to work? I so want this! Thanks so much.