Ikea MY melodi

Materials: IKEA Melodi, Staedtler permanent Lumocolor (S, F, B, M)

Description: I wrote my favorite recipes from "The Silver Spoon" (the Italian culinary bible) with permanent markers from Staedtler (Pen Sizes S, M, F, B) on the big IKEA Melodi (14,99 Euro in Germany) ...

See more of the delicious Melodi.

~ Bruno Schulz, Bad Kreuznach - Germany

7 euro light wonder

Materials: Melodi, art podge, Ikea napkins and fabric

Description: I wanted lighting that was custom to each room, and my budget was small, so I got some art podge when I was in Hungary and bought a few Melodi lights for our new place on sale at 5 euros a pop.

For the napkin (blue flowers) lamp I took the decorated part of 3 Ikea napkins and separated them from the rest of the layers of napkin, cut everything into rectangles, and used diluted art podge (with water) to get the napkins in the right shape and glued onto the outside of the Melodi. Then I left it hanging on the shower curtain rod to dry for 24 hours, put another coat of straight art podge over the whole thing and voila, a custom lamp that matches our Ikea bedspread.

The second lamp was done with the kids material you can find in the store because it was for my girls' room. This was only one step, using straight art podge with the fabric and left to dry for 24 hours. The only thing you need to remember is that the light is going to shine through, so if you mind the layered look when the light is on, you will need to do a lot of cutting and puzzle piecing to get the whole lamp covered without much overlap. Enjoy!!

~ Kristin, Athens, Greece

Melodi for the birds

Materials: Melodi Lamp, shape print out, stencil sheets, stencil knife, thin brush, acrylic paint, tape

Description: When I bought this lamp, I already knew it was in for some changes. I didn't know exactly what I'd be doing, but then a light bulb went off (pun intended): stenciling!

I found the images that I wanted online, adjusted the sizes and printed them. The next step was to cut out stencils from the printed shapes. Using the inside of the stencil cut out, I used painter's tape to secure the shapes to the inside of the lamp. I then used acrylic paint and a thin brush to paint in the outline.

~ Santa Martin

Triple MELODI feather shade

Materials: Melodi lamp

Description: It is quite simple hack transforming dull Melodi lamp into large and unique triple shade.

The goal was to keep it cheap. For this reason Melodi was great (cost around 4 Euro per piece. After hack it looks more $ophi$ticated :)

You will need:

- 3 x MELODI lamps
- about 200-250 gams of feather (I bought mine in online store with florist and wedding accesories. Cost about 8 Euro)
- bottle of transparent universal glue
- some thin steel line (length dependant on hanging height)
- few electric connectors (some to be extracted from plastic insulator)
- basic hand tools, small drill ~3mm

Hack:

Hope that my drawings will help.

First drill small holes (~3mm) in tops of all shades. Now you can glue feathers to them (that is the boring part). When glue is drying you can make all electric connections. First cut all 3 ledas about 15 cm from bulb socket. remove insulation and connect all 3 to double electric connector. To its other side connect cable that goes to ceiling. Insulate the connection with tape. Ceiling cable should be long enough to stay loose when lamp is hanging. After lamp is assembled you will be able to hide cable conection between 3 shades.

Now fixing system. cut 3 pieces of steel line about 10 cm long and fix extracted cable connector on one end. Then pull them through small holes in the shades. Connect all three with another connector and pull them tight. Now main rope. Pull it through ceiling cover and make 2 loops to fix it to ceiling hook and triple shade. Remember about another connetot on yhis line to fix ceiling cover in place (it will not be stable on cable, because it has to stay loose.

Now you can put everything together, hide the electric connection inside triple shade and install the lamp. Important - it must be hanging on steel line only. Cable has to stay loose!

See more photos of the Feather lamp.

~ kedzil, Poland