If you don’t shop at Ikea, you are seriously missing out.

I know, I know, it’s a sad design world when every post-grad and their mother has the same particle board furniture. But the trick is NOT completely filling your home with doo-dads from just ONE store.

And customizing the things that you do buy there…..

When we were in Puerto Rico, our hotel…the La Concha…had a very swinging bar scene by the pool every night. To create that “swinging” atmosphere the hotel surrounded the pool area with these orange glass cube hurricanes. Simple orange glass boxes with candles. Very modern, very sexxxy. Of course I thought, “I can make those”. And I certainly could…..but maybe, I could make something similar (and slightly cheaper) with the Ikea lanterns we already have.

The Borrby Lantern to be exact

9 inches square, by 14 inches high…I’m sure you have seen them. Ours are galvanized, but they come in black and white too. Like everything at Ikea  they are reasonable priced, at about 15 bucks each. There’s a smaller version, but I wouldn’t even bother with those. Make an impact. Buy the big ones. Trust Me.

If you’ve never heard of theatrical gels, I’m sure you have seen what they can do. They are thin transparent sheets of colored polycarbonate, like a plastic water bottle, when inserted in front of a spotlight change its color. Gels are amazingly inexpensive and come in every color of the rainbow. (except black and clear, for obvious reasons) They are way much cheaper than colored glass…see where we are headed with this now, folks? A 20″ X 24″ sheet is about 8 bucks….and a sheet and a half is enough for 2 of the big  lanterns. I picked a few up at Norcostco Theater Supply here in Dallas this past week. Orange number 21, the darkest orange color they had.

I started by cutting a few 10″ X 7″ pieces with scissors. Don’t worry if your edges aren’t perfect, no one will even see them.

Adhering the gels to the glass is much easier than you might think. All it takes is Windex. Clean your lantern glass really well, any specks of dirt will look like bubbles in your “colored” glass. Then spritz the entire glass surface lightly….

Remove the white tissue backing and lay your gel piece on the glass. This is why I do the inside of the lantern to hide all the rough edges of the gel. Otherwise you will have to trim every piece exactly to size. And who has time for that? 

Now, use a credit card, or a Tom Thumb Reward card, to squeeze all the Windex out. Start from the middle and gently push towards the outside….

As the Windex dries, the gel sticks to the glass……it’s sssssooo simple. And they peel off when you are tired of them. You will want to make sure that your candle flame will be far away from the gel, or they melt….again, use the Big lantern.

Look at all this Awesomeness…….

They look just GREAT with our currently orange front door too….

Choose any color you like. Just stick with the darker colors because they will make the most impact. We happen to love orange in this house…but, I’m thinking red might be the way to go for Christmas this year….

Stay tuned and see……..