Easy rustic branch light with Zest it Up

Hello thrifty friends!!

I hope you are all doing well and starting the year off fabulous- Chanda and I have had so much fun thinking up new projects to zest up our homes and we are super excited to share today’s with you. Disclaimer- this may look complicated but seriously it’s oh so easy! If you don’t have saw skills you can always have Home Depot cut your wood and it’s as simple as a few screws when you get home, xo

Sam here, some of you might know from reading our blog that I am a plant nerd. Yep my husband is constantly shaking his head when I come home with some new exotic plant (and I kill it, cough cough). But I can’t resist!! After all my degree is in Landscape Architecture and I am a firm believer in bringing the outdoors inside. Hence today’s project 🙂

Plus did I mention that us San Diego and Los Angeles city girls just get really excited to go out to the country for any zesty project?!

Got our jams and we are on the prowl for some good old branches….

Yep full force hunter and gatherers…looking for the perfect limb!!

Trying to find a limb that is not too wide, is strong enough to hold a light fixture, and is esthetically pleasing.

Victory is ours!!!!

Ready to take our pride and joy home…

Supplies Check- light fixture, bulb, 2×8 or large plank of wood, white vinegar, steel wool, sisal rope, nails, hot glue, corner brackets

I scored this awesome metal industrial light fixture at the goodwill for $3- get your thrifty on!!

Start with making the base of your light stand by cutting your 2×8 or plank of wood

Now Chanda added flat corner brackets to connect the planks…

Meanwhile I was starting to disassemble my goodwill find and see how the wire lighting would connect

Chanda continued her hacking and tackled the branch, a straight flat cut….

Now to attach the branch to our base using some L brackets…easy!

We felt like we still needed the base to have some more support so we added a triangular block- don’t worry we will cover this eye sore!!!

Next up- drill a hole into the branch for our light cord…

Time to string on our light fixture…

Not bad for a day’s work, now to make that base lookin’ oh so fine….

I started with sanding the base to make one smooth operator

Next I am going to show you my favorite way to stain- not only is it cheap but also so much cleaner than regular wood stain!! Grab some white distilled vinegar as well as some steel wool, pour the vinegar over the wool just enough to cover the pad completely. Let sit for 15 mins.

You will want to use a glove to avoid having a smelly hand- pee yew! Rub the wood with the wool, using the pad as if it were a paint brush or sponge. Cover the entire piece of wood with one even coat.

Let the wood sit and start to do it’s magic, do as many coats as you would like. You will see the wood begin to “grey” out with each coat, here I have done 4 coats every 15 to 20 mins. I plan to do a few more coats for some darker contrasting wood.

Time to wrap up that ugly wood block now….

Grab some sisal rope or your favorite cording and begin to wrap. You can try to use a staple gun to tack the end in or using a finishing nail if your staples are not long enough.

wrap wrap wrap….

Finish it off with another nail to hold the rope into place.

Cut your rope and glue frayed edges together with your glue gun

Boom baby! Loving my new little reading light, and I can’t wait to go and buy an Edison bulb to make my light even more fashionable and oh so trendy. For the mean time I am very energy efficient 🙂 hehe

Happy Zestin’

xo

Sam & Chanda

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