Guest Blogger - Junk Blossoms - Battery Powered Night Light

Hi Everyone! I am Pat and you can find me over at Junkblossoms. I'm half of the team, Ron is the other half who does the woodworking part. I decide what we're going to make and Ron does a great job of bringing it to life. We take junk and hopefully it "blossoms" into some pretty unique things. We have been blogging since late July of last year and we enjoy it so much!

I am so thrilled to have Michelle invite me to be a guest on her blog. She's a sweetie. Every week she is nice enough to feature many of our creations in with her own. I owe her a big Thank You for introducing this somewhat new blogger to you all. Some of the projects she has featured of mine include turning a chair into a shelf, a tabletop Christmas trees made from washers, and turning a table into a shelf. Some other great projects are: the trunk coffee table, toile vanity bench, a bench from a bed, shelves from shutters, ammo box table, and crib turned chair. Click on the links to see my unique creations from junk.

Today's project has turned out to be one of my favorites. This is a battery powered night light. I had picked up a string of battery powered Christmas lights at a yard sale a long time ago. Until now, I had no idea what to do with them. They made this project!


This picture shows the lights better.



The project started out as a very worn out electrical wall fixture that I found at the Goodwill Store.



That same day, I found this square picture frame and knew exactly how to use it for my project.


The first thing was take out the glass and the picture. Then I proceeded to tear the frame apart. These weren't made very sturdy and it came apart easily. I removed the staples.


Then glued two sides together. And then the other two sides. I used Gorilla glue to be certain they wouldn't come apart.





I had a larger piece of wood for the front of the nightlight. I glued the frame pieces to the long sides of this board. I needed the deep sides as the battery pack for the lights was for D cell batteries so it was awfully thick. I wanted to hide the pack. When that was dry I measured where I wanted the globe to be positioned on the front and where the bracket for the globe was to be, marked it off and then drilled a hole for the lights to come through.

I painted an undercoat of brown.

You can see the hole for the lights and for the screws of the globe bracket.

When it was all dry I threaded the lights from the back to the front.

I screwed in the globe bracket. I also screwed the battery pack down on the back to hold it in place.

I drilled a hole in each side and threaded a wire through to hang the night light. But it was after this I decided I didn't like it brown. It looked so plain. Sooooo.........

I ran to the Hobby Lobby and bought four of these corner decorations and glued them on.

That was looking much better. All this sounds really involved, but it isn't. It took me longer because I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with it. I liked the corner decorations.

So with the lights still in I painted two coats of Country White. I hung the lights through the handles on one of my kitchen cabinets to keep it out of the way and painted it on the kitchen counter. Now I was happier with the nightlight.

The last thing was to distress it and put on an aging wash and when dry, reassemble it.

Now I like it. I really like it.

Here it is in the dark. There's plenty of light.

This really was an easy project. I found all the pieces I needed at the Goodwill. It was too cold for Ron to do any cutting outside or he could have cut me boards for the sides and for the front. If you have a woodworker that can help, it makes the project even easier.

Not sure what room it will end up in, but it isn't going to our booth. :-)

Once again a Big Thank You to Michelle for letting me be here. I really appreciate all she does. See you soon at Junkblossoms.

Thanks, Pat, for sharing this junkblossom with us. If you haven't visited Junkblossoms, you really should. It isn't a "fancy" blog, but it is very helpful. So many great ideas of things to do with things like cabinet doors, shutters, old tables, shelves, refurnishing, junk, etc. If I could make my junk turn into blossoms like Pat and Ron's, I would be thrilled! GO visit HERE.

Linking to Saturday Nite Special