A beautiful house is not a matter of money, but imagination.

Where did the term DIY (Do It Yourself) come from? In the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia”, they suggest that DIY in terms of fixing or making things (and not music, because it is a separate DIY field), appeared with the bloom of the Internet and tips from artists, designers, architects who shared their ideas and how to do it by yourself at home.

I have thought a lot about the DIY movement and I will tell you that I completely disagree with this definition. In my opinion, DIY has existed since the very beginning of humanity. A good example is a scene from Stanley Cubrick’s movie, “A Space Odyssey ” where, under mysterious circumstances, a cube appears among a herd of monkeys and interacts with them in “some” way. Suddenly one takes a bone in the paw and uses it (that bone) as a tool. For what purpose? I will not spoil the movie 🙂 I highly recommend watching it for yourself. It is important that the item was used in a completely different way than before.

The same is with the DIY trend. You take the fruit crate and make it a bookcase. Schwitters once said that “whatever an artist spits out is art.” Isn’t it beautiful to feel like an artist and “spit” something out of yourself by combining anything with anything? And if it also has a function, u la la la, satisfaction guaranteed. Picasso once hung a bicycle saddle connected to a handlebars on the wall, it happened in 1942. He called it “The Bull’s head”. Currently, this head is in the Picasso Museum in Paris. I write about it because maybe you too, my dear reader, will also dare to be “crazy”? Crazy is quite a pejorative term, but what is art if not madness, insanity, fantasy?

Design is something other than art. Art is not practical. Design, in my opinion, can be a great art and at the same time serve as a juice squeezer (yes, I mean the famous Philippe Starck juicer). Whether you create art or design for your home, or simply hang your favorite used skis on the ceiling, it is up to you. It is important that you do not worry about anything and do something you like for yourself, for your home. I promise you will feel good about it.

What pushed me to create my first DIY? Helplessness;)

I have been convincing my husband for a while to buy a grass lamp for my home. I like this boho style in interiors. The first one came in a terrible condition. I did not have the strength to convince Wiktor that this time it might come undamaged. All of this coincided with March- which means cutting of dry stalks from the garden, that is, among others, grass stalks. During the garden work, I fell in love with the material that I was about to throw into the compost… Something in me was refusing to simply dispose of such a beautiful material. I took everything home and … this is how my lamp was made 🙂

If you are interested in making a similar one, below I’m describing the building process. This part will be as “interesting” as the recipe, so if you do not want to build your own lamp, you can simply skip this part.

My first DIY recipe that I tested on myself 🙂 Voila:

Preparation time is approximately 2 hours.

To make the lamp, you will need:

1. Old lamp, or a cheap market bought lamp, for example, from Castorama (what I used), preferably with a wood construction.
2. Glue gun, I use the Bosch brand and it has never let me down before, but there are also much cheaper versions.
3. Something that you attach to the lamp frame, in this case it was dry grass.
4. Bulb, I really like the ones with a warm light, colloquially called Edison’s bulb… This name is just funny, because all the bulbs started with Mr. Thomas Alv Edison, in the long run even the LED ones, although these of course work on a different technology. But don’t be fooled, the ones called “Edison” may look like the ones from the beginning of the 20th century, but they are actually LED bulbs. In our case, that’s an advantage. The old type of light bulbs used to get very hot, so the lamp I present would one day be a fantastic kindling to a house fire. Since we do not want to cause any tragedies, we can only use LED bulbs for the lamp, which does not heat up so much. Here, however, be cautious, watch your bulb and be careful when using it with the grass. I use my grass lamp very rarely and it serves rather as a romantic decoration in the interior, which I sometimes light up … Sorry, turn it on.

Back to work:)

1. Start the work from the bottom of the lamp frame, so that grass, hairs, strings, whatever you use, rest on the structure already glued down to the frame.
2. Take your time, choose the grass in such a way that it bends to one side. My grasses were bent by winter winds and they were all bowing to one side. I glued the whole thing as if the wind was blowing into the lamp. Such an approach will help you control the “mess” and create the impression of the lamp being “combed”.
3. When you get to the top of the lamp, you will have stumps sticking out of grass at the top. I wrapped mine with string, which I glued down with hot glue.
4. When gluing the upper layers of grass, remember to make sure that the lamp cable is mounted well (it is the whole bulb clip), otherwise it will be difficult for you to fix it after installing the grass and it may damage your subtle structure.
5. Time for assembly, for which I also “used” my beloved father-in-law, who  acts as a “handyman” in my house. After installing the lamp, it is worth spraying it with hairspray, preferably very smelly and extra strong. Usually the cheapest are best for this. Why spray with varnish? For 2 reasons: such a smell rejects potential insects that would like to live in our cocoon, and secondly, it will stiffen the structure. The lamp may stink for 1 week, then the scent will fade away and the effect will remain.

If you got to this point, it means that you are a persistent reader and you liked something about my text. I thank you for that 🙂