Not sure when the last time you hula hooped but I had the misfortune to try it recently (when I bought these), and I looked like an Amish teenager watching their first hip-hop music video and trying to mimic the dance moves. It wasn’t pretty. But you know what is pretty?
99cent (so yes, $4.96) hula hoop light fixture.
Oh and it’s easy. I did this 99 cent DIY story for HGTV.COM recently (check out the doily bowl and the copperleaf candle as well). I love me some 99cent stores because they can sell a lot of really simple items that you can elevate to look all fancy. Not like Pippa Middleton kinda fancy, but still fun, easy, and inexpensive.
Here’s what you do.
1. Buy five hula hoops from your local 99 cent store, then resist the urge not to thrust your hips round and round.
2. Drill a hole (with a normal wood bit) through opposite ends of said hula hoop (one at a time), and insert a short screw …
.. like this, except these were too long, so get shorter ones. (I had to cut them down.) Get them around three inches. They are machine screws because they don’t have points so therefore less dangerous.
3. Continue the process with three more hula hoops — drilling holes then threading them through the screws on the top and the bottom. You’ll layer and maneuver.
Keep going …
Full hula hoop. All evenly spaced. Then screw the nut on it and tighten ‘er up so they don’t move.
Look at it go. It’s like this puppy in the wind:
Right?
4. Then spray paint it gold, two to three coats, rotating it as it dries to make sure you get all the underneath sides.
5. Buy a light kit. In this case, I used the gold chord kit and socket, and a big pretty bulb, instead of a smaller one. I basically just rigged the chord around the top area.
Let me be clear, this is not meant to be something super high end looking — it’s more like a cheap and fun piece. It would be great for a loft party, or so fun for a kids’ room. You could paint it white for something more modern, or paint it black if you are goth … or just into black. Obviously you could stripe them, glitter them, dip dye them … endless possibilities. The whole project cost around $10 because I already had the spray paint.
Do it. It’s fast and easy. And check out my doily bowl and my copperleaf candle.
Next week? I make a 99cent flux capacitor. I’m just that crafty.