Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » diy project: whitney’s mason jar lights

growing up in the south, i have a special place in my heart for mason jars. i enjoy them filled to the brim with icy sweet tea, but this fun project from d*s reader whitney gaylord may be my new favorite way to enjoy them. unlike most of our other diy projects, this one will require a bit of professional help (installing anything involving electricity is no joke) but the majority of the steps are easy to handle and will require only a quick call to your local electrician (home depot offers these services, too) to install the final project. click here for the full instructions or just click “read more” below - thanks to whitney for sharing!

mason jar lights

what you’ll need:
-vintage mason jars
-hanging lamp kit with low wattage bulbs (try your local lighting store, home depot or lowes)
-ceiling light plate

1. punch holes in each mason jar lid, large enough to fit the light bulb cords through (appx. 1 inch). as always, be safe and use gloves and a steady hand when punching holes. to punch the hole you can use either a hammer and nails (which you’ll need to then widen for the cords) or a larger tool that you can tap through.

2. unscrew the lid, insert the bulbs into each jar, feeding the cord through the holes in the lid. whitney suggests using a lamp kit that includes tension clasps to keep the bulb from sliding.

3. tighten the lid back on the jar and adjust the bulb to its desired height (using the tension clasps).

4. using a store-bought ceiling light plate- drill holes into the plate to pull all of your cords through (depending on how many jar-lights you will be hanging). pull the lights through, allowing enough cord to hang the lights at your desired height, and then tie a knot at the top to keep them from falling back through the ceiling plate.

5. contact your local electrician to install the lights into your ceiling- we do not suggest trying to install these yourself unless you’re a trained electrician.

Cheryl, I saw this in Anthropologie too, in Baltimore! I loved it; there were around 50 jars and they “washed” the jars in yellow paint so it gave off a lovely golden haze. They flipped the jars though and cut holes in the bottom for the lights. No lids.

Is there some kind of creative mindmeld going on in the universe right now? This is the second idea that I have had recently that I thought of and then within 2 or 3 days - see it on a blog! Unbelievable.

hello! i absolutely love this and want to know if i can get my hands on some beautiful vintage mason jars from somewhere on the internet, ive tried ebay but it doesnt come up with much!

reason im asking is i live in the uk.

These are really beautiful! It seems like you could reduce the potential “heat build-up” issue by punching more vent holes in the lid- maybe the light escaping onto the ceiling could be a design feature!

Too kewl!
I am imagining them hanging around my deck at nite. Maybe in the old blue jars? Or clear jars with yellow bug lites?
Low wattage, would that be 25 watts?
Would heat from the bulbs cause the class to break?
Has anyone tried and used them for a significant amount of time?

i started using mason jars as lamps when i graduated from college in 2002. it’s definitely a cheap way to make a beautiful light.

i never had a problem with using the this kind of lamp for a long period of time, as it was my only light source in my bedroom. i’d try it with compact fluorescent light bulb too. they emit less heat.

what’s great is if you can get ahold of some lighting gels and insert them into the jars. these are heat-safe, and you can get them from theater supply companies (many you can directly order from online)

oh! and you can also install these lamps like you would install a paper lamp. hang it from a hook in your ceiling and run the cord (a black one works best aesthetically imho & clear or black cable tacks) along the ceiling to the wall, and then run it to the outlet. it makes for a pretty minimal “line” addition to your room.

This is cool, one idea I saw in an old restaurant once was a wagon wheel with bulbs and the mason jar lids were glued to the wheel and the jars screwed on, the lights hung into the jars through the wheel itself.
I imagine a light kit, and drill for holes in the wheel and the lids, and voila’

I thought that was a cool use of old mason jars, but any way of hanging them is cool.
Tks!

thoughts on heat build-up:

with low-wattage incandescents like large xmas tree light bulbs, it probably wouldn’t be too bad, but you could punch some extra holes in the lid for more ventilation. flame-tips seem to generally be about 40w, so that probably would get hot, but then again mason jars are made to be boiled over and over again in the canning process, so they probably would be fine?

compact fluorescents do emit less heat and (obviously) use less energy, but they are more susceptible to damage from heat build-up than incandescents (shortens their useful lifetime), and above a certain wattage they aren’t recommended for enclosed fixtures, like these jars. they do make smallish candelabra-type CFLs now that are unfortunately pretty hideous but only use about 4-5 watts and would probably be safe with some ventilation holes.

these really are pretty!

You may want to put a caution on this one! These get extremely hot even if you use very low wattage. On one of the forums I read years ago about putting Christmas lights (which are very low wattage) into jars on your mantel. They got so hot with the lids on that I was worried they would catch something around them on fire. Evidently the glass heats up really easily. If you leave the lid off it’s much better. Perhaps for the hanging ones you could either drill lots of holes in the tops or replace the lid with screening. Either way it would be a lot safer - there must be air able to get into the jar to keep it from overheating. Thanks!

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