Ikea Hack Regolit, and Hemma Coffee Filter Pendant Light

Ikea Hack

Regolit, and Hemma

Coffee Filter Pendant Light

Over a year ago I bought a Hemma cord set from Ikea, like this, only white. 

I had several shades that I knew I could update and hang over my bed. Unfortunately once home, I realized not one of those shades fit correctly on the cord. So, for over a year I had this silly brown shade hanging crookedly over my bed and I have been tried to convince myself that it fits with my eclectic decor. 

Fast forward to a month ago. I made a trip, with a friend, to the new Ikea in Memphis. Woohoo! it's only 2 1/2 hours away, about half the distance of the one in Dallas. This time I took a better look at the less expensive shades and I came across this.

Kind of boring, right? But for $4.99 I couldn't pass up it's potential. I knew it could be something spectacular if I just thought about it for awhile. I dug around in Pinterest and found several ideas, but most were still a bit tame for me. Lots of white. So, I decided to turn up the volume on a coffee filter hack. 

I was going to use fabric dye, but I had some old gel food coloring in my cupboard. If I can do something for less, I will. 

I used only yellow at first adding more and more as I dyed and eventually adding in some pink to make a gradient to my filters. I took a few filters at a time folded them up and dunked them in the dye. Easy peasy. This project ended up taking about 700 filters. I only bought 400 at first. When I went back for more, I got a different brand. Here's where you can learn from me, haha. 

You'll see why this size difference could be a problem later on. After they were dyed I hung them in stacks on one of those folding dryer deals. 

I hung them up at about 8 pm and by the time I woke up the next morning they were completely dry. As you can see they aren't as vivid after drying. In each stack the outside filter is much brighter and they fade more and more towards the middle. Another learning experience. I hate those.

Starting with the lightest filters I Folded them into 4ths and glued the point to the shade. 

Pardon my mess. When I craft things tend to get out of hand. 

Here's how far I got on the first batch of 400 filters. 

Here's where the filter size difference could have been a disaster. I decided the best course of action was to bend the tip a little farther up to compensate. 

The colors were off in my gradient too, so I started from the other end using the brightest filters and worked back to the middle. 

It kind of looks a bit like a clown head at this point. 

The gradient isn't the best in the middle, but once lighted, it's not near as obvious. 

I'm pretty proud of this one. 

I'd love some feedback, any thoughts on making it easier or better? Thanks, for stopping by come back soon. I promise I will have more fun stuff soon.