Turn a classic IKEA mirror into a wall sconce.
I had a bit of a lightbulb (pardon the pun) moment a bit back when I was posting about Nickey Kehoe Interiors and the accordian wall lamps I saw (and loved) everywhere. I knew I had something similar hanging around the house somewhere and realized it was my IKEA FRÄCK accordian bathroom mirror. I also found an old $5 IKEA clamp light (just hanging around doing nothing) and so I decided to use it and try to merge the two into a simple hack that anyone could do. And well, here it is! The only thing I had to buy was a plaque (to secure it to the wall better) and we were set!
Materials Used:
IKEA FRÄCK accordian bathroom mirror
A clamp light, (mine was an old one from IKEA) but a small aluminum clamp lightwould probably look even better (I will probably exchange mine out thinking about it now)
A wall plaque or piece of wood (I picked up mine at Michael’s)
2 screws
Paint (optional)
How-To:
Remove the mirror from the accordian portion of the fixture if attached (usually they are already apart when you buy them). Our clamp light had one hole (in one part of the clamp) but not in the other – so we had to drill a hole through the other end in order for us to slip the clamp light in replace of the mirror of the accordion fixture. We slipped the clamp part of the light through the metal piece where the mirror would go, leaving the top part of the light clamp on the outside of the screw, so that it wouldn’t fall down. But you could also just have it slip in between the two.
At this point you could paint the plaque if you wished it to be a different color – however I chose to keep our’s white to blend in with the wall colour, but black would look pretty awesome too. Also if you wish, you could paint the accordion part (which I was thinking about) but opted out to. But I do love the look of a black plaque and a black accordion – just like the ones found at Nickey Kehoe Interiors – so I just might paint them later.
Once you’ve decided to paint or not (and the paint is dry of course), you can then attach the accordion part to the plaque by centering it – marking holes where the screws will go with a pencil. And then just attach with the screws. We did this so it’s more secure to the wall and won’t eventually end up falling off due to usage. But you don’t have to use a plaque if you wanted to skip that part.
Next just attach to the wall and you’re done! I placed ours over my old piano my Mom so generously gave to us this past year and which desperately needed lighting nearby it. It’s so nice to have the piano around again and to be able to see the music now too!
