DIY Basket Pendant Light

Do you ever have one of those projects that you just know you have to do? Like, every time you see it in a magazine or on Instagram in someone’s feed…it just speaks to you? That’s exactly how I felt about making a pendant light shade from a basket. I love the look of it, I love that it’s giving something a different use than it normally would have, and I love that it’s 100% unique! Sidebar: I’m an Enneagram 4…and if you know anything about 4’s…we HAVE TO BE unique! (If you haven’t taken the Enneagram test yet, you totally should—it’s so interesting! I digress…

The stars finally aligned when I found this amazing basket from a local vintage seller, Gin + Tarnish, and knew that it would be perfect for the project I had in mind. I had just recently replaced the light fixture above our dining table, so the only other place a basket pendant light would work was in our entryway.

I spent around $30 on the basket itself, which I didn’t think was bad considering its size and that it was fairly old…and totally one of a kind! Well, not totally…the gal had a couple of other ones, but still…very unique! The only other items I needed to purchase for the project were a ceiling medallion and a hard-wired pendant light cord. You don’t have to use a ceiling medallion, but I like the look of them—more polished—and this one was pretty reasonably priced, so why not?

Once I had all the pieces, I chose to spray paint the ceiling medallion and the pendant light cord (you can find them HERE and a similar one HERE. I used the same color on both—Uber Matte spray paint in Mist. You can find it HERE. One tool I always use when spray painting is THIS GUY—it makes spray painting projects so much easier and I think it helps spray more evenly. Bonus, it’s super affordable!

After I got the ceiling medallion and pendant light cord sprayed, the next step was to get the basket attached to the cord. Jason and I decided that the best way to create a hole to feed the cord through was to use a cordless screwdriver and drill bit. You’ll need to experiment a bit with whatever cord you get, to figure out what size drill bit you’ll need. Remember to start out smaller and go up to a bigger size if you need to, as you want the hole to be tight…just big enough for the cord to feed through. To feed the cord through, you’ll need to disconnect it from the pendant light cord canopy (the round part that goes up against the ceiling), and then feed it through the underside of the basket and out the top of the basket. Then, you’ll feed the cord and wiring back through the canopy. Depending on what your cord is like, there should be some type of washer or piece that will fit at the opening of the canopy to stop the cord from slipping back out.

Disclaimer, we are not electrical experts, but Jason has gotten pretty good at switching out light fixtures. One thing to note is, when you take down your existing fixture, look at how the wires are connected and do the same thing with the new one. I take a picture of everything as we go, so I always have a visual to reference if I need to.

The other thing you’ll need to consider is how much of a drop you want for the cord…or how low you want it to hang. You’ll want to make sure that if there’s a door near it, that it can open easily. Also, consider how tall the people in your house are. I’m only 5’ tall, so to me it’s not as big of a deal, but Jason is 6’5”, so we made sure he could easily walk under it.

Once you have the length of cord figured out, you will want to get your ceiling medallion in place. The canopy on the pendant light cord will eventually hold the medallion in place, but to make it easier to install the light itself, I used a couple of command strips to just hold the medallion to the ceiling, until we had everything wired and in place.

The last piece to the puzzle…the light bulb. Now, there are a lot of light bulb options out there…and it can be overwhelming. Make sure that you measure the basket to know how big of a bulb you can get. I also made sure to get a “pretty” one, since it’s very visible under the basket. THIS is the one I got!

And that’s it! It was seriously such an easy process…even for a couple of DIY newbies like Jason and me! I’m so happy that I finally made my DIY basket pendant light a reality! It just goes to show…if you have an idea for your home, it’s possible to make it happen! With a little planning and some elbow grease, I was able to create a very unique and budget-friendly light fixture for our home!

If you decide to try this project for yourself, I’d love for you to share it on Instagram and tag me! You can find me HERE.

*This post is not sponsored—all opinions and words are my own. This post does include affiliate links, from which I make a small commission, but does not cost the purchaser anything extra.