Craft A Stunning Entryway Statement Piece Using Dollar Tree Items And A Lampshade

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When you invite guests to your home for the first time, what will the decor of your entryway tell them about you and what's to come? Will they find solace? Stress? Something in between? If you want this part of your home to tell a good story, the accent pieces you choose for the space need to set the right mood. Few accessories do that better than a lamp. A stunning entryway lamp radiates a glow of warmth and offers more than a hint of your personality, and while you can find the former in any furniture store, the latter might be a little harder to come by. That's why if you're a savvy home decor DIYer, you'll enjoy making your own lamp — from a lampshade and a handful of items you can find for under 10 bucks at Dollar Tree no less.

This mood-lighting DIY is the brainchild of Hometalk, who turned to unlikely items like the Cooking Concepts Nickel Colored Wire Paper Towel Holders, a clear cylindrical glass vase, and an ordinary puck light into the basic building blocks of a lamp. Other Dollar Tree items, like craft marbles, wallpaper sheets, and zip ties, were also on the list of to-get items.

If you're making this yourself, you won't find some of the necessary stuff, like the lampshade at Dollar Tree. However, it's likely you can find one at a thrift shop or even on sale somewhere for close to Dollar Tree prices. Scrap paper and a pair of scissors may additionally be of use to you during this project, depending on how you construct the lamp.

No lamp will stand without a solid base. For this, you'll tap the vase. You have some leeway here in terms of which you choose. The most logical choices are the 8.5-Inch Cylindrical Glass Vase and the 10.5-Inch Cylindrical Glass Vase. You'll cover it with the wallpaper, eventually, so it's mostly a matter of how tall you want the lamp to be.

And speaking of covering the glass, you'll want to do that first. Use a couple of sheets of peel-and-stick wallpaper, taking care to smooth out any air bubbles that might form between the glass and the wallpaper. The wallpaper may be slightly longer than the glass. If that turns out to be the case, cut tabs in the section of excess, perpendicular to the lip of the glass, and fold the tabs down over the lip of the vase to get rid of the extra.

Next, carefully add at least one bag of Clear Glass Accent Gems – also called floral marbles – to the bottom of the vase. (You might need a couple of bags or crumpled pieces of paper to keep the paper towel holder in place.) Turn the paper towel holder upside down and put it inside the vase, working it into the marbles. The goal is to make the metal towel holder stand upright by itself. Once that's done, place a lampshade on top of the paper towel holder, and fasten it to the holder with zip ties. Finally, add a puck light on top of that, and style it on an entryway table to add function and form to the space.

Dollar Tree is a veritable playground for the serious crafter. Because of this, it's the place to go first when you want to experiment a bit with the basic design of this DIY lamp. Let's say you'd like a lamp that doesn't have a wallpaper-covered base. Why not switch out a plain vase for Dollar Tree's Blue Swirl Glass Vase? It's mostly made of clear glass, except for the blue streak of colored glass going up its side. Fill it to the top with the glass marbles, add the paper towel holder, and the shade, and you've got a chic and thoroughly modern lamp made of glass. 

Another option to try is to use jute cord to cover the base instead of wallpaper. You'd wrap some of the rope around the vase to cover it, securing it in place along the way with dabs of hot glue. Topping the rope-covered lamp with a Seaside Village Rattan Lamp Shade or one with a vintage floral pattern would give the finished piece a spot in your BoHo-style home. 

These suggestions represent just a few ideas for personalizing the lamp. Since Dollar Tree changes its stock periodically, it's worth taking a trip to the store to look for new arrivals. The right trinket combined with your imagination would be all it takes to turn these inexpensive raw materials into the stunning mood lighting you want for your entryway.