the Re-Purposed Home DIY Mason Jar Light Fixtures

This is my kitchen sink light and I love it!

I love mason jars.  My mother canned delicious fruits, vegetables, juices, jams, etc. and I loved seeing them, freshly out of the canning bath, bright and comforting in the sunlight and then later, during the winter, selecting one of the tasty foods that was sealed in those bottles and enjoying the taste of summer all year long.  We used the bottles for lots of other things too, when they got a chip on the top edge they were handy for holding dry goods or nuts and bolts or just about anything that you wanted a lid on and a clear view of the contents inside.  I love mason jars!  (I even decorated my Christmas tree with a few of them.) 



    





When we built our home, being who I am, I didn't want to spend much on our light fixtures but I wanted them to be nice looking, warm and inviting as well as functional, meaningful and unique. I decided to make some of our light fixtures out of mason jars.  I had seen some hanging mason jar lights and a shelf lamp or two but they weren't what I had in mind so I set out to the hardware store and found a couple of fixtures that were perfect for what I wanted.  These were inexpensive and easy to find and lent themselves perfectly to what I had in mind. 

$5 fixture with factory globe removed

w/ mason jar-now my kitchen sink light!

Simple fixture-perfect for my lights!

smaller pint-jar fixture for kids' hallway

     In most of my house we have hardware and fixtures that are either black or oil-rubbed bronze so I bought some black, brown and bronze spray paints to experiment with.  Some of the fixtures I decided to paint while others, being black, I left as they were. As far as fixtures go, keep an eye on sizing to make sure they fit your jar size.  If you choose to use a small-mouth jar, you will need to purchase narrower or specialty light bulbs that can get costly after a while. (The same holds true if you decide to use a pint-sized jar instead of the large-mouth, quart-size, which I did in a few places where my ceiling was lower and head space was a consideration.  I used both small-mouth, large-mouth, quart and pint-sized jars and have enjoyed all of them. (I wait for sales on the bulbs that are smaller or narrower and will fit into a pint-size or small-mouth, quart jar.) 

     These light fixtures install simply, just as you would a normal, mass produced factory light. I did have to get some longer bolts to screw in and hold my jars on occasion but they too were easy to find and cheap.  Because the glass cover piece is a mason jar, when I need to replace a bulb, i can usually just turn the jar and remove it without having to unscrew the securing bolts.  Our mason jar lights are also brighter than the "factory light fixtures" and for someone like me who likes brightly lit rooms , that has been an awesome little side note.  We have loved our mason jar lights!  

This is my kitchen island light/pan rack made with 4 pint-sized mason jar lights mounted onto a sled.   I'll be doing a post about my kitchen light fixture/pan rack shortly if you'd like to see how to make one.