Wood Shim Pendant Light - Part One

My dear blog friends, this little project has been in the making for much longer than I ever anticipated - and it's still not complete! When I shared my brainstorming session with you on dining table pendant lights a few weeks ago, I expected to whip my DIY version up in no time and present it to you triumphantly. But that didn't happen. Nooo, no. The project has taken more tinkering and more of my brain space than I'd care to admit. I also had an epic failure involving a plastic bucket. Sigh. That's a story for another day. In an effort to keep it real, I figured I'd bring you up to speed with where I am today with this guy. I'm sure y'all have been sitting on the edges of your seats in anticipation ;). Let's call this post "part one" ok? Tomorrow, in part two, I'll share a full tutorial on how I actually (finally!) made this thing. (**Update: how-to post is up now! Head over here to read it. You can also see it installed in this post.)

Oh, and I should also mention that completing this project has come at the perfect time, because tomorrow marks the spring edition of the Pinterest Challenge!

Since this project involved much browsing of Pinterest and using those pins as inspiration, I'll be linking this post up to the lovely host blogs Young House Love, Bower Power, Red Bird Blue and Sparkle Meets Pop.  If you don't know what the Pinterest Challenge is, head over to this post to read all about it, then link up your pinspired project too! I can't wait to see all of them. If you'd like to see what I made for my first Pinterest Challenge, head on over to this post.

Now back to that pendant light...

After asking for your opinions (thank you to those who chimed in!) on whether to go with a pendant with texture (i.e. wood or woven fiber), glass or a drum shade, I decided to mix two of the categories - texture and a drum shade.

I was inspired by a couple of different photos. You'll remember this one from the inspiration post that I Photoshopped over our table...

{design*sponge via Kim on Pinterest}

...And then there's this one made from a wood planter from the handmade home:

{the handmade home via Stephanie on Pinterest}

Then it was off to find the materials to make something similar. I settled on using an old drum shade from Target and wood shims. After a little abracadabra action (ok, more like blood, sweat and almost a few tears), I ended up with this lovely pendant light!

In case you're wondering, no, there's not a slant to the bottom - it's just the angle of this photo!

I'm totally digging the texture and character of the wood shims. Like I said at the beginning, it's not completely done, but it's well on its way to being finished (hooray!). I still have some small adjustments to make, and I'm thinking there might be a little paint action as well. We'll see. Then there's the whole hanging it from the ceiling part as well. I rigged it up temporarily so I could snap some photos, but the "real rigging" will happen in the next few days.

Thus ends part one of the DIY pendant light saga...hope you'll stick around for part two tomorrow! (**Update: how-to post is up now! Head over here to read it. You can also see it installed in this post.)