I have said this before and I’m sure I’m going to say it again, I love my house. It’s been a great house for us these past 16 months. There are some things that I don’t love about my house though and one this is the builder’s grade lights. They are just so plain and generic (plus everyone on my block has them). I have switched out a few lights (and plan to do more). We have these two pendant lights over our bar. I love the pendants lights but I don’t love the shades. I have always wanted to get some fun and funky lights for them but I couldn’t find ones that I absolutely loved (that weren’t $70+ each). What I really wanted were some fun turquoise pendant lights but I just didn’t find anything. So I decided that I need to take matters into my own hands. I decided to dye our lights turquoise. And guess what, they look awesome! The best part, it cost me ZERO DOLLARS!!! Yup, I had all the supplies on hand (and I bet you do too). And it only took about 5 minutes to do, you can’t beat that! Want to know how I did it? Well I’ll tell you :).
Food coloring works great for dyeing glass but because the light shade is in direct contact with light/heat the color fades. So either use more food coloring or use the Rit Dye, I would recommend using the Rit Dye. It lasts much longer I used the Rit Dye the same way I did with the food coloring, I added it to the Mod Podge and then put it on the shade.Next I took some Mod Podge and food coloring (yes food coloring). You can also use Rit Dye too if you want some more color options.
I have since done some other things in my kitchen, like installed a new faucet and added hardware.
*****UPDATE: I did these over a year ago and they still look AWESOME! Here is a picture of them that I just took and they had held up very well to the heat of the light and cleaning. *****
I love how these turned out so much that I decided to make some holiday/winter ones to trade out during the winter months. To make them super festive I put glitter and snowflakes on them and they look so cool!
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this.is.genius! totally sealing this idea . . .now to find out for what! 😉
How cool is that!!! Pinned!!
This is a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing.
What a wonderful idea and just in time. I have a three light fixture hanging over my sink that's going to get "some new clothes".
Great idea, there's some lights I would like to change to the color I like. And looking at yours they look as good as the ones you pay a high price for. Thanks for sharing.
What a great idea. The color is beautiful and enhances the kitchen. Why you can pick up the glass shades all over and can change out the color for the season.
Love this idea!!!! I have a question: Can you change the color at a later date? ie, say you change the color of the room and want to use the same shades but make them a different color.
TOTALLY LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!!
As we remodel our mountain cabin in New Mexico, this is one idea that I am totally stealing. Turquoise is my main color up there so I have hit the jackpot with you my darling!
How would you clean them?
Windex, to remove kitchen grease,
or would it remove the Modpodge?
I have those exact same lights like that in my kitchen too, and if I didn't know better, you must live in Ok., too. What other colors can I use and still have the lights shine through?
Love this
A very clever idea, brilliant even. I also love the mural over your pantry door, did you do that yourself?
Absolutely BRILLIANT! It never surprises me to see how many incredibly creative and inventive women are out there. God certainly made some great modifications after his 'first' version!!!!
Yes I made the wall art- it's here https://www.keepingitsimplecrafts.com/2014/06/kitchen-vinyl-subway-art-and.html
I love the look! I do have one question, is there any smell emitted as the shades heat up after the lights have been on for a while?
@Gisele, no there is no smell that I noticed and I am bothered by smells, so it would something that I noticed 🙂
This is a simple yet genius idea! I shall steal and use in the shades in my art studio!
Love this idea!! I have those same globes in a bathroom, so…I am thinking after the "dye job" I'll use some clear poly spray over it. Thanks for the great idea!!
To make ur process even easier they now make a translucent seafoam paint in blue and green
Gorgeous paint
Whaaaaaat?!?! This is so brilliant. Looks amazing!
I'd love to do this in our new home. Is the dye permanent or can I just wash it out if I want to change the color at any given time? Your article is written as if the rit dye fades over time, but rit dye that I've used in the past has always been permanent. Do you have a suggestion for something I can just wash out and change at any given time? Thank you in advance, and great job on this simple yet brilliant kitchen upgrade!
I SO want to do this on the fixture over my kitchen sink!! And the color is perfect-how many drops did you use to get the color that you have? And does the heat from the bulb affect it in any way? And did you use RIT or food coloring, I want the color to be as close to yours as I can get!
Thank you so so much, very creative!
Wow! This is such a great idea! Thank you for sharing. I'm going to try this too. By the way I love you entire kitchen. I was wondering if you could share with me where you found your chairs for the high counter? We have some but I'm wanting to replace them with something very similar! They look very kid friendly too. We have ones that are metal and swivel… Not good! Thank you and look forward to hearing from you.
Jennifer Franz- I got them from Amazon- http://amzn.to/2bIRLG6
I would say you are very talented and full of imagination! You photo show you are young so have a great life and have lots of fun.
Sylvia
norsylvia@yahoo.com
do you think it would still work if I thinned it out a bit with water then let it run over the shade to avoid the brush strokes?
So kewl! Thanks for sharing. I have a couple sconces I'm gonna try this on.
I tried to do this..fail. I used thinned Elmers glue and acrylic paint. How can I get it off? I couldn't find the Rit in my color. how can I save these three shades? Can I spray paint them? Oh please help.
Oh no I'm sorry it didn't work! The paint is a lot thicker than the dye so I'm assuming that it's not very see through. Can you scrape it off gently with a razor blade? Or paint thinner? I really have no idea- good luck!
I am renting and have a dated light in the kitchen eating area. It is a hanging light with a very dated glass flower shade.I wanted to just replace the glass lampshade on it but discovered that the only way to get it off is "over" the fixture which is pretty much painted onto the ceiling. Other than smashing the shade there's no way to change it so I've been looking for some way to spruce it up a bit and found this. Thank you and am doing this asap!
I want to do this to some glass that will be outside exposed to all kinds of weather. Will the color hold up ?
Will this hold up if done on glass that is outside and exposed to ll kinds of weather ?
I am new at this . Not sure if this question has already been posted. Will the color on the glass hold up to all kinds of weather ? I want to do this to glass that will be outside in a garden. Thanks.
I loved the idea for the light shades. As I was reading it I also thought mod-podged tissue paper on the outside might look kinda cool in asst colors, or paint splatter. This got me think of a whole lot of other options. dependent on the feel I wanted. I Really love your cabinets. Did you do those yourself? If so, can you do a How-to on that? or at least let me know if they were air gun sprayed & the color brand/name. Thanks for so many great ideas!!
I loved what you did with the light shades. It also gave my other ideas for tissue paper mod-pogded od dependent on the feeling I want. Did you paint you cabinets yourselves? If so did you use a spray gun & can you let me know the brand/color? Thanks for the great ideas.
Redoing my bathroom and I used stonecoat countertops epoxy which bythe way is amazing stuff..i made my bathroom sink blue, green,mauve and white and pearl metallics.its a funky take on a bathroom countertop. Anyway, I painted faucet and light fixture white metallic with a hammered clear topcoat ans walls a light blue. Was really wanting to change color of frosted globes and rhis is prefect!!! Exact co lo or i was going for! Thank you so much for the video as you have solved my dilemma! You rock????
Redoing my bathroom and I used stonecoat countertops epoxy which bythe way is amazing stuff..i made my bathroom sink blue, green,mauve and white and pearl metallics.its a funky take on a bathroom countertop. Anyway, I painted faucet and light fixture white metallic with a hammered clear topcoat ans walls a light blue. Was really wanting to change color of frosted globes and rhis is prefect!!! Exact co lo or i was going for! Thank you so much for the video as you have solved my dilemma! You rock��
Sorry for all the typos..print is small on my phone or else it's paint fumes? Lol