A dreamy light fixture: DIY cloud light
Updated: Sep 21, 2023
When I originally shared the mood board and plans for Lincoln's room I knew I loved the cloud light fixture that I had put in the mood board and assumed I would purchase this one. I was slightly worried it would go too "baby", but I ultimately decided to go for it.
After doing a bit more research (and watching this video) I realized that the light I had been looking to purchase may not be the best quality, it was around $150. I did a bit more searching and found this light that seemed to be much better quality, but the price was $450 and I really didn't have it in the budget to splurge in this area (the wallpaper was kind of my one big splurge for this room). I started to think through the logistics of creating the cloud light myself and watched another video to give me the confidence I needed. It looked fairly simple, especially considering that both videos I watched included much trickier mechanicals with LED lights or smart speakers, and all I wanted was a regular light fixture. So let's get into it!
Supplies:
-paper lanterns- several are pictured here since I wasn't sure what size I would use, but I ultimately ended up using (1) 16", (1) 12", and (1) 8" lantern (I ordered this and this).
- 2 bags of fiber fill
- hot glue gun and glue sticks (I probably went through about 20-30 glue sticks so make sure you have a nice full bag on hand!)
- not pictured here are the zip ties I ended up using to secure the lanterns to each other and ultimately secure the entire thing to the light kit
Tutorial:
The first thing that I did was open up a few lanterns and piece them together to see what shape I wanted. I settled on what we lovingly referred to as a "derpy mickey" shape. I used a 16" lantern in the center, a 12" lantern on the left, and an 8" lantern on the right.
At this point Phoenix decided he wanted to help so he held up our initial shape in Lincoln's room to see how the scale was looking. I was happy with this so we kept going.
Not pictured are the zip ties I added at this point to secure the side lanterns to the main lantern, there are little metal loops at the top of each lantern and they were the perfect place to loop the zip ties through and secure both side lanterns to the main lantern. These added zip ties meant that I wouldn't be relying on hot glue to hold everything together. Next, it was time to take the fiber fill and hot glue it onto the cloud shape.
I attempted to make singular fluffy cloud shapes to mimic the $450 light fixture as much as possible. I filled any gaps I had between my larger shapes in with smaller fluffs.
Here I was about halfway through and I had the smaller lantern completely covered.
I took some scrap paper and hot glued it over the top and bottom holes of the lanterns (except for the top hole of the center lantern which is where it would need to connect to the light kit) that way the fiber fill had something to stick to and didn't fall through.
Here it is about two-thirds of the way finished. Phoenix lost interest in the project so Kris was now modeling it for me, haha! It was about this time I ran out of fiber fill and had to run to the store to get a second bag (doesn't that always happen right in the middle of a project?!).
While I ran to the store Kris installed the light kit into the ceiling for me (no more dangling cords- hooray!). when I got back I quickly glued on the rest of the cloud shapes and then it was time to hang it!
In this photo above you can see the metal piece that sits in little notches inside the paper lanterns. In the photo below you can see what that piece looks like when it's been pulled out of the lantern- its shaped like a long rectangle and this is what gives the paper lantern its round shape.
We removed this piece from the lantern and secured it to the light kit using zip ties.
Next, I added some small zip ties to the loops inside the paper lantern, then we slid these zip ties onto the top of the metal rectangle piece. I did NOT zip tie the cloud to the metal rectangle, I simply made little loops that made it easier to hang the cloud from the rectangle. This way the cloud can still slide off easily when we need to change the lightbulb.
And voila!
I love the way that it turned out- it's so dreamy and the scale is great. I didn't want to have a dinky little cloud light and this one is about 3' long and feels super substantial in the room! Here's how much this project cost me.
Price Breakdown:
paper lanterns- $15.97
hot glue gun and glue sticks- I already owned
light kit- $22
classic fiber fill- $6.99 for each bag, $14 total
zip ties- I already had some on hand
total: $51.97
This is a great price considering that even if I had cheaped out and ordered the light that was in my budget it would have been half this size and still $100 more. This project took me about 2-3 hours and would have been much less if I hadn't had to run to the store in the middle. Let me know if you attempt this project, I would love to see it- tag me on instagram or facebook!
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