I had been searching stores, as well as the net for cordless, affordable light fixtures for the side of a center picture that I have hanging up in my living-room. I did not want to deal with rewiring or visible, hanging plugs. I honestly didn’t think that it was going to be this hard to find what I was looking for; maybe I was googling all the wrong inquiries…..I don’t know, regardless, I could not find what I was wanting. So what was I to do? This called for a DIY project!

I looked on Amazon for some wall sconce candle holders and no luck….at least for a good price, I mean I needed two and that meant double the price. I also checked Hobby Lobby, Moss & Main, Target-of course….. among other stores, and nada! I even scavenged a couple thrift stores; I will say that the thrift stores had more items close to what I was looking for than regular retail stores.

I remembered that my grandma had several of these types of home decorations throughout her house at one point, so I gave it a shot and asked her if she still had any candle sconces that she was willing to pass down 🙂 And- YEP!!! I got lucky, and they are perfect!

First things first, now I know that gold has made a huge come back these days, but that’s just not the style within my home, so spray paint it is! I’m not huge into “shiny,” so I usually play around with matte colors and satin if needed. For this particular project, I used a matte black spray paint. I came across a new product by Behr and gave it a shot; I actually really like it. Sometimes, even when it says “matte,” the final product comes out with a tiny shine or a chalky look, I didn’t get that with this product.

After fully dissembling the sconces and spray painting them, I needed to figure out how far from the wall the tops of the sconces would stick out. You need to be pretty precise on this because if you plan on putting lamp shades on these, as I did, you want to make sure that they will not be hitting the wall. Keep the center of the sconce and the center of the lamp shade in mind when taking your lamp shade measurements. The lamp shades I used are from Amazon, and are chandelier lamp shades. {Meriville Set of 5 Off White Faux Silk clip on chandelier Shades, 3.5-inch by 4.5-inch} Mine are 4 and a 1/2 inches in diameter (the bottom, largest part of the lamp shade); meaning from the wall to the center of my lamp shade and scone, I have 2 and a 1/2 inches to play with.

Moving onto how I made these cute candle holders, not look like candle holders. From within my lamp shades, I tied battery operated lights to the metal clip inside of the shade. The lights that I bought are remote control compatible and are LED, also from Amazon. {Submersible Led Lights with Remote Battery Operated} They are small enough to be completely hidden under the lamp shade. I did still use a candle stick, a few inches long, to hold the lamp shade in place. Because it was a smidge top heavy, I wrapped a rubber band to the bottom of the candle and shoved it into the sconce to hold it better in place.

Now I have remote operated, lit sconces to the right and left of a picture in my living-room, and I love the way it turned out!! Best part about it, I only paid, maybe $50.00 for the set. That includes, spray paint, lamp shades, and LED lights. Granted I was lucky enough to get my candle sconces from my grandma, I did run by a few at thrift stores. I also did come across a pretty style on Amazon but chose to go with my grandma’s set for free 🙂 .

Hope that this was of some inspiration to you and that you have fun with it!!! Stay Pretty!