Chalkboard light sign

To say this project has been a long time coming would be an understatement. I think I had the idea a good year and a half ago but just couldn't find the right lights to suffice my needs. 

Making anything in the carnival light style was always going to be tricky. Rob and I have spent ages trying to come up with plans but it all rested on finding a string of lights where the outer glass case came away from the fairy lights. Why? Sow that we could tightly secure and fit each bulb in place from the back and front. It was all about neatness and after trying about 5 sets of lights to see if the outer case came off I gave up looking. Anything I wanted was going to be too expensive for a simple craft project, so I resorted to buying carnival lights inline already made up in letter form.

One fluke trip to The Range though changed all that. In their home lights section they had a small collection of fairy lights and these iridescent bulb ones were around £7.95. As soon as I saw them I noticed that you could remove the outer glass and that they would just fit onto normal LED fairy lights. Perfect! 

Once briefing Rob on cuts, he got to work on making the board. It was just a piece of MDF cut to the size I wanted. 

We then placed the bulbs and measured the distance between each one before drilling out a perfect sized hole (16mm) that would allow us to feed the fairy lights in from the back and place the glass in the front. 

Before putting the fairy lights in I painted the wood in chalkboard paint so that it could become a really versatile piece. Easy for writing messages for events or something just to have in the home.

Then I just threaded the lights on to it, from the back and front. Like joining two pieces together except the board just came in the middle of them. 

The finished piece is brilliant. And I hope you would agree perfect for accessorising your home with! 

Emily