I love decorating my home with unique, one-of-a-kind items. My love gets greater when I can do that on a budget. Let me show you how I created a lighted ceramic stool for my living room.



Lighted Ceramic Stool Project
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Bringing a Stool Inside
Do you ever see something that you want in your space, but don’t really know how you will use it? I know. It happens to me all the time.
I love glazed garden stools! Quite some time ago I found a pair at BigLots (similar to the one above). The ones I found were decorated in traditional Asian pattern which didn’t work for my interior but I saw the potential. I got them knowing I would paint them.
I purchased some ceramic paint in aqua (my favorite) and commenced to transforming them to work better with my decor. The paint worked well it just took a number of coats to get it opaque like I wanted. Anyway, I was pleased with the result and counted it a successful revamp.

A Second Look

Then one day I looked at the stools and thought they were not being shown in their best “light”. Then it came to me, the stools weren’t just stools they were potential statement pieces (isn’t everything?).
Just like I had done before, I painted the interior of one of the stools using a gold metallic paint for ceramics. I did this so that light would bounce and reflect off the metallic paint better than the original dull glazed finish.
Lighting Up My Lighted Ceramic Stool

Ooooooo! Look, at my stool now! Its also a light!

Even though this would probably technically be considered decorative lighting, both the openings on either side and on top of the stool allow quite a bit of light.

Another light source, like a flameless candle (the newest ones even have timers), would also work quite well. You could also use simple holiday twinkle lights as a budget option for the same effect.
CAUTION: I would use only a very low wattage lightbulb for this project and NEVER use a real candle.
My stools live in our living room, but these could easily reside in a bedroom as unique side tables or even back outside for a new twist on that garden stool. How romantic right?