My mom always, always had mason jars all over the place when I was growing up. We loved the blue color of the glass. They weren't decorative; we actually put them to use storing tea and rice and all manner of dried goods. She always found them at local thrift stores or swap meets for 50 cents or a dollar. We've always gotten a kick out of the idea that people will spend $20 on one jar. Once, when we went to Olivera Street in Los Angeles, a lady in a store sold us a half dozen of these for $3. That's where three of these came from.
I came across this tutorial at Grace & Greg, but thought our vaulted ceiling would make hanging this a total pain. Then I saw this tutorial at Kara Palsey Designs and knew I had the perfect inspiration.
Both tutorials have great instructions, so I used bits from each depending on what materials I had on hand. I wired all nine of my jars and they all have lightbulbs - some 60 watt chandelier ones (that look like big Christmas lights), and some 40 watt nightlight bulbs (for the little jars). We need the light in our huge kitchen! I used three vintage Ball Mason Jars, three clear Kerr and Ball jars, and three small Kerr and Ball jars.
All in all, since I had the jars on hand already, this cost about $25 for the keyless sockets (I used the ones Kara shows in her tute), the lamp wire (which is sold in bulk so you can specify to the Home Depot how much you want - I bought 30 feet of clear, 18-2 lamp wire), and the lightbulbs. That's all I needed that I didn't already have. We reused the ceiling cap and just drilled a bigger hole.
This was really easy and relatively quick. I'd say it took me three hours total to wire all the jars and for us to hang it to the ceiling. I love it so much more than our terrible old saloon-inspired 1980's nightmare chandelier that came with the house. From gross
On a side note, I cannot figure out how to photograph these while it's sunny. When I turn on the lights, it makes all of the background dark. Does anyone know what I need to do to photograph these without making the rest of the room go black?
xoxo,
