This week while I was in Seattle, Ralph and I went to some tag sales. I adore a tag sales. They are such a great way to reduce our footprint by reusing or re-purposing as opposed to just being consumers at the retail level. There are many, many people who discover they just have collected way too much "stuff" and having a yard sale, tag sale, garage sale, etc. is a great way for them to make a little cash while making a little space. Hitting these sales is a win-win for both seller and buyer. Most times I go "treasure hunting" (as I like to call these great sales) I find some gem and it rarely costs me more than a dollar or two.
I was very excited when we hit a tag sale at a house that overlooked Puget Sound in West Seattle both because the sale looked promising and because the view was spectacular. The woman who was having the sale was wonderful to chat with and lots of great items from cookie cutters to an awesome antique drop-leaf dough table. While poking through her this and that's, Ralph came across an IKEA Ottava lamp. If you have ever seen one, this pendant lamp is a chameleon that can fit into many types of decor from industrial to farm to marine. The price new out the door from IKEA is only $29.95 so it isn't a budget buster by any means, but finding it for just $5 is fabulous.
As an added bonus this particular lamp had been wired with an on/off switch on the cord and shortened. While many might see this as a drawback, I immediately saw that this would be the perfect lamp for hanging over my Tiny House bump-out desk. By now I was very excited about all the potential. I was really hoping to find a copper light fixture originally because I love the look of copper, but I am willing to compromise when I find a deal like this. The lamp comes in a brushed aluminum finish and brass nuts/clamps that hold the shade on. The glass is hand blown and each is unique. It is very similar in style to one I saw at Restoration Hardware, but it cost over $100 which is just too rich for my blood. Also, I love the look of a filament light bulb, but I will be using an energy saving fluorescent bulb due to being on solar power, not grid. All things being equal, my $5 find was in wonderful shape and met the requirements for my project.
Tonight when I sat down to write this post and share with all my wonderful readers about this great lamp, I found a way to make this all I ever dreamed of for just a couple of dollars more. While I was poking around to find a picture from IKEA's website and typed Ottava into Google. In the results I found Kojo-Designs IKEA hack of the Ottava. Kirstin has a great step-by-step DIY on how to paint the Ottava to look copper. As you can see from the picture, it looks amazing in copper. I hope mine turns out looking just as fabulous.
