coffee cup lamp

I have seen some great teacup lamps on  Pinterest and various blogs. One of my favorites is from Lisa at Recaptured Charm. Go check out her blog; she has amazing projects! She inspired me to make a cup lamp for the B Farm's kitchen!
Since my theme seems to be chickens and coffee, I searched thrift stores for the perfect coffee cups with, of course, a coffee theme or chicken theme. I found 4 cups I liked - 3 with a coffee design and a soup mug with chickens on it. All were $1.99 or less.

My choices for the lamp

I decided to drill holes in my cups since my husband was willing to help me. For a tutorial on how to make one without drilling, you can go here: Country Living teapot-lamp-project.

I played with different arrangements of my cups and decided to eliminate one to keep it the size I wanted and only use the soup mug and 2 coffee cups - one in a similar color to the mug and the other in a contrasting color. Then we assembled all our tools:

drill, masonry bits, glass bits, sharpie to mark where to drill, tape, water, and of course, the cups and saucers.

Mr. B used a small bit to start the hole. (He drilled slowly until the hole was started.) I held the mug( not sure this was smart but oh well!) and squirted water on the piece as needed. Fortunately, most would hold a small pool of water on the bottom. (*Just a note of warning: this is definitely a two-person job unless you have a way to clamp the piece down securely. Also the drill gets hot and heats the water, so be careful! Wear safety glasses to protect your eyes.) Once the hole was started ( put tape over spot to allow drill to grab), he switched to a larger bit to make the hole the right size for my rod.

Mr. B's holding it here, then he had me hold it so he could keep the drill steady

It was slow work. Mr. B finally switched to the glass bit as it was sharper than the masonry bit. He didn't put a lot of pressure on it - didn't want to break the cup. I also had him drill holes in the two saucers. (These were inserted between the cups for stability.) Lastly, he drilled a smaller hole on the side of the bottom cup for the cord to go through. This was the trickiest part - I propped it with a board under the handle to help stabilize it.

Lastly, I took all inside and washed the grit and grime off. Then using a lamp kit I'd bought plus extra lock nuts, I threaded the cord through the side hole of the bottom mug and then up the rod. Then I assembled all the pieces, holding them together with lock nuts. Lastly, I glued the bottom mug and saucer together so they couldn't come apart...the rod doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the mug as the cord has to have room to exit out the side. In reality, that mug didn't need a hole in the bottom - just the side. Oh well, live and learn!

The shade is one I found at Target - covered in burlap, of course! I added the trim to spice it up a bit. Cute, don't you think?

Of course, all this was done here at my city home so when I got to the farm and placed it on the counter, it was too high! Ack! Mr. B suggested I get the wooden crates out of the shop and make a table to set it on, so I did. ( He really does have good ideas! ) I placed it in the corner of the dining room (it needed something anyway as it was feeling way too empty!) and ta da!  Perfection!! Still part of the kitchen decor and found the perfect use for my crates. ( happy dance)

here it is lit up

good use of the crates!

Colors go with my mugs!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the whole dining room. Take my word for it, it looks great in that corner!
What do you think?

Glad you stopped by for a visit. Tomorrow I'll show how Fall has come to the B Farm!
Cecilia

Linking with these parties:
DiyShowOff- diy project parade-51
"Life on Lakeshore Drive"
Debbiedoo's
CoastalCharm nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no130