It’s always nice for the creative soul when a holiday like Christmas forces one to make a Maker weekend happen—in this case, to finish off a gifts project.
These were off-the-summer-clearance-shelf galvanized steel lanterns from which I removed the glass lenses, painted them in “hammered copper” and “oil rubbed bronze” Rustoleum and then inserted custom PG maple and cherry ply screens featuring the names of the children (and spouses) and grandchildren of our moms. (And thanks to good luck and the the Pro’s pass-through slot, I could maximize space and just barely get all 6 screens cut from a single sheet.)
Not expecting the covered wood “roofs” to take to the soot of candles very friendly-like, they are lighted with a large "art glass’ votive filled with sparkling dewdrop LED lights.
Outstanding! I’ve seen various lanterns at the dollar tree, habitat restore, thrift stores, yard sales… And I usually don’t grab 'em because I just can’t “get there” in my head… I’ll grab 'em every time now!
Thanks! I think I’ll keep more of an eye out in the future, too. The house form-function of these in particular inspired my gift idea to get past square one, but I think I’ll keep an eye out for other styles too. Getting the glass lenses out of these lanterns without cracking was really tricky—they were held in with a sticky glue/caulk. (I wore my kevlar mandolin gloves just to be extra safe.) But after that project design and assembly went smoothly.
