DIY Bamboo Pendant Light
Guys. I have an imaginary beach house. It’s gorgeous. It’s very Tulum with its warm, colorful and understated beach vibes.I think you’d love to visit. That’s where this DIY bamboo pendant light I’m sharing today comes from. It can be used outdoors (hello cute patios!), and it is a fun addition to weddings since they are giant and super affordable to make!
Fiskars just launched a whole new collection of tools made for DIYers and I was able to put their pliers and wire cutters to the test with this project! Their entire line of DIY tools are perfect for home decor projects, including a hand saw, hammer, screwdriver and drill to name a few, made for accuracy when you’re working on DIY projects that home improvement tools are simply too heavy or too strong to use.
This DIY Bamboo pendant light was made for the outdoors. Using reed fencing as the starting point, you can decorate your patio or outdoor dinner fetes with a fully functional outdoor light. You can finish the project in about 2 hours with the steps below.
What you’ll need:
Fiskars Pliers
Fiskars Wire Cutters
Fiskars Amplify Scissors
tomato cage
reed fence roll
Weatherproof light kit
Yarn
You’ll pretty much just go straight to the gardening section of a home improvement store for these materials. Grab a tomato cage in the size you want your lamp to be, a roll of reed fencing, and a weatherproof outdoor light kit shouldn’t be too far from these aisles.
How to make an outdoor bamboo pendant light:
If you’re looking at this and thinking…what if we hung these in our wedding?! I’d say a resounding YES. With a roll of 4’x8′ reed fence, you can make a bunch of these outdoor pendant lights all for the same price of what a bamboo pendant light costs at the store.
The way you make them is ridiculously simple.
Roll the tomato cage around the reed fence to mark a template. I more or less eyeballed it, leaving a little extra to work the seam.
The best way to cut through a whole sheet of bamboo fence will be using Fiskars Amplify Scissors, I tried different tools but the ends of the reed sticks will fray if the scissors can’t handle the thickness. It cuts mixed media or multiple sheets of cardstock.
Grab your tomato cage and bend the lose ends downward, crossing the 3 wires over. Then bend the wires again around the hoop. This will be the top of your pendant lamp and will secure the light cable in the center.
Wrap your reed fence cutout around the tomato cage and secure it on the frame by tying wires around the circumference. I used the wires from the reed fence itself and tied the ends on the inside of the lamp. I added wires along the 3 tiers or the tomato cage.
Once your bamboo pendant light is more or less secure to the tomato cage, you can go ahead and remove the “lines” of wiring of the reed fence that isn’t aligned with the tomato cage tiers. You don’t have to do this, but it will give a cleaner look if you just see 3 wire lines instead of 6. You can use those scrap wires to secure the bamboo more firmly on the frame. I tied the wires every couple of inches both horizontally and vertically for reference.
To close the seam of the lamp, you’re going to overlap both ends of the bamboo fence, and secure it along the vertical and horizontals wires of the tomato cage. Trim the excess off with scissors.
Thread your light kit through the middle of the tomato cage and secure it with wires. For outdoor use, we recommend getting a weatherproof light kit.
You can make a smaller version of this bamboo pendant lamp by getting a smaller tomato cage and a smaller roll of reed fencing or a small wire basket.
Making tassels:
We used a tassel maker for this, but you can you can also just use a piece of cardboard as a template or wrapping yarn around your fingers like below if you’re in a pinch.
You can thread a wire through the top of the tassel to attach to the frame (recommended), or hot glue them like we did here.
