DIY Doily light
So a mere week before Christmas, and only ten days before I went into labor, my husband came home to this going on in the middle of our kitchen. Luckily, we’ve been together for about 11 years, so he’s pretty used to my crazy projects taking over our house.
I used one of those giant punching bag balloons that I found at the dollar store since they are perfectly spherical vs the typical balloon shape. Plus, they seem to be a little thicker than a normal balloon, and less likely to pop during the process.
The original poster used wallpaper glue, but I just went with what I had on hand which was regular old Elmer’s school glue, that I watered down a bit. I simply placed the doilies on the balloon and painted them with the glue until they were completely saturated. The glue seemed to have just enough tack to hold them in place and I didn’t have any problems with them falling off before they were dry.
I let this dry for about 24 hours and then went back and touched up some areas that didn’t feel quite stiff enough (if your doilies seem too pliable, just increase your glue to water ratio). Then I let this dry for another day. Then it hung there for another couple of days just because.
Finally I popped the balloon (which was Phoebe’s favorite part) and used this lighting kit from Ikea to hang it up. I intentionally left an opening between a couple of the doilies so that I could fit the bulb and socket into the center without having to cut out a hole in the lamp.
And there you go! It was incredibly simple, and it only cost me around 10. Four for the lighting kit and I probably used about six doilies (thrifted at about 1 each) to cover the balloon.
