my free book page chandelier

Have you ever bought something for your home, thinking it was amazing but as soon as you saw it in your space...you realized it just wasn't right?

But you hold on to it {or in my case, keep it hung up} thinking perhaps you just have to get used to it and it's a change or you're being adventurous getting something you wouldn't ordinarily choose.

And then it's too late to return it...?

So is the story of our chandelier. If you can even call it that. It's cool, it's industrial, I got it on a rockin' sale.

But I hate it.

Last summer I snuck into one of my favorite {yet pricy} home boutiques here in Denver. It's the kind of place where you just look...or maybe buy some cute paper napkins.

But I fell in love with this book page chandelier. It's amazing, is it not?!

It was about $700 {{over}} my budget so I went online to look around and see if I could find something similar anywhere else.

Pottery Barn sold one...but sadly I was a few years too late, it had been discontinued.

I even found someone's blog who was talking about hers and how she wasn't sure if she liked it {are you KIDDING me? it's amazing!} and like a stalker, I emailed her asking if I could buy it from her. Ummm...I never heard back.

So I held on to my industrial {and too small for the space} chandelier over our dining room table.

I didn't love the room in general, so who cared if one of the bulbs was burnt out and that it looked awkward in the space {well, I cared...but I was trying to convince myself to move on}.

And then while reading The Nesting Place the other day {which you NEED by the way}, I happened on to the above photo.

GASP! A book page chandelier. And the light went on. {pun totally intended}

I could do that!! I could make that!

So I grabbed some of the vintage books I've found at Goodwill and leafed through them for interesting pages.

I'm not gonna lie, it kind of hurt ripping them out. But it's all in the name of beauty and design, right?!

Using some gold binder clips and paper clips, I hung up each page.

And I love the way it looks!!!

Ben thought the room was a little dark, so I simply took out the vintage filament bulbs and screwed in regular higher wattage bulbs since they no longer showed.

A fun,  free update that took about 10 minutes!

What do you think?