HATTEN goes HOT(pink)!

My tweeny step daughter wanted a room makeover a la iCarly‘s new room.

She especially had her eye on the cupcake sofa table ($$$$), and as our budget is always tight, I had to get inventive and think outside the (flat packed) box.

This is what I did:

cupcake lamp DIY with IKEA side table

Materials:

IKEA Hatten table
Paint
Fairy lights
Sparkly wrapping foil
Spray glue
Drill

DIY cupcake lamp with IKEA HATTEN side table

I bought a HATTEN table from IKEA for £16 as it was the closest I could get to the shape of a cupcake! I removed the lid and painted it hot pink on the inside. If I was to do this again I would have used spray paint to make life easier, and the result less stripy, but just normal paint works as well.

IKEA HATTEN side table spray painted pink

I wanted the finished table to pop a bit, be a little bit extraordinary, so I decided to fill it with fairy lights.

Fairy lights in cupcake lamp

They weren’t very bright (but still bright enough to make the paint stripes show through… 🙁 ) so to enhance them (and hide said paint stripes) I bought this silvery holographic plastic wrapping film (paper?), cut it into the same shape as the bottom of the table (although slightly bigger, so that it would overlap with the side pieces) and two strips as wide as the table is deep.

Once I had made sure everything fitted well, I spray-glued the film to the inside of the table. Spray glue dries quickly, so I only left it for 20 minutes or so before putting the fairy lights back in.

Holographic paper
Line the inside of the cupcake lamp

The silvery holographic pattern reflects the dim LEDs of the fairy lights, making them appear just a little bit brighter. I drilled a hole through the bottom of the table, near a leg, for the cable to go through.

DIY cupcake lamp done

The result is a girly pink cupcake lamp and table with a silvery glow inside! My stepdaughter loves it, and I must admit I do too!

~ Anna Ostman, London