My home office is very small and also happens to be in a rather dark corner of my apartment, so having proper lighting was very  important. I considered a desk lamp but given how small  my desk is, I decided to go with a pendant lamp instead.

Since I didn’t any more money in my budget to buy a lamp, I looked around the house to find something I could use to make one. I already had an extra HEMMA IKEA pendant lamp kit left over from another project and I also had an IKEA ALANG lamp I wasn’t using, and that’s when I got the idea to combine the two to make a pendant lamp. It literally took minutes to make and install!

First, I cut two pieces of wire, about 12 inches long, and bent them in half around the neck of the pendant lamp kit.  Then I placed the wires facing each other, under the lip on the socket and twisted the wires together.

Next, I passed the cord of the pendant lamp kit through the hole in the middle of the lamp shade and twisted the 2 wire ends around the wire frame (this is to stabilize the lamp kit so it stays in place).

You could leave the pendant lamp like this but I didn’t want to look at the bulb from underneath so I cut out a light diffuser from a flexible chopping mat I got at the dollar store. I traced the outside and inside outline of the lamp shade onto the chopping mat and then cut it slightly inside the outside line so it could rest on the rim of the lamp shade.

To hang the lamp, I used the hook provided with the lamp kit and an anchor (I used a plumb bob to make sure it was centered above my desk – you can see how to use the plumb bob in this video where I share quick tips for hanging things).

The pendant lamp kit didn’t come with a switch so to turn the light on and off, I use a dimmer light switch that you can plug the lamp into.

This couldn’t have been easier to do and the pendant lamp brightens up my office all day long, without having taking up any of my precious desk space! You can see more of my office DIY projects in this video, including how I turned my IKEA desk legs into a cat scratching post!: