Cool Hacks: West Elm Reclaimed Wood Buffet and Hicks Pendant Light

Hola!

I'm not particularly fond of the term "hack" to describe modifying an object to turn it into another form of the same object (like the ubiquitous "Ikea hacks") -- to me hack signifies a person who smells like a bar the morning after (if you ever worked in a bar and cleaned up after hours you know exactly the smell I'm talking about) -- a rummy, if you will -- and is just going through the motions performing his or her craft or trade.  A perfect example of a hack was the role performed by Paul Newman in the excellent 1982 movie "The Verdict" in which he played a washed-up, burnt-out lawyer with a drinking problem.

Be that as it may, I do love the idea of making something "low" look like something "high" at a minimum cost, and to that end one of my favorite websites is Knock Off Decor.   I visit it often to see what you genius d-i-y-ers out there in blogland are doing with your creative selves!

This morning I saw two projects that just blew me away:

The first one is a "Reclaimed Wood Buffet Ikea Hack" that was done by Aniko at Place of My Taste.  Aniko fell in love with West Elm's "Reclaimed wood and lacquer buffet" that has a price tag of $1,199 plus $100 delivery surcharge.  Yikes!  It sure is a beauty, though, I do have to say so:

Photo:  West Elm website.  

I won't go into the details of how Aniko transformed her already owned Ikea buffet -- you'll want to check it out for yourself and marvel at how she did it.  Suffice to say it was sheer creative genius and I love, love, love the result -- take a peek:

Photo from Place of My Taste - Ikea buffet refaced with reclaimed wood!

The second transformation that transfixed me is by Brynne of The Gathered Home, who took an Ikea light fixture and created the look of a Hicks pendant light.  Now darlings, I confess, I had no idea what the hell a Hicks pendant light was until I read about it at Brynne's blog.  Pretty cool looking, I must say.  How do you all find these things -- is there a secret cult of people who do nothing but scan online sources day after day after day, looking for such things?  Ha - of course - Pinterest and Houzz!  Can you tell -- I don't get out very often:

The "large size" Hicks pendant light
at Circa Lighting.

Above, the large size Hicks pendant light at Circa Lighting, retails for $735.  I haven't even spent that much on a sofa, let alone a single light fixture.  Are people nuts?

Below is Brynne's amazing transformation of the Ikea Vaster pendant light, which retails for around $90.  Visit Brynne's site and follow along step by step how she did it.  Honestly, other than the cord not having a chain, I wouldn't know the difference:

Brynne Delerson's amazing
transformation of an Ikea Vaster pendant
light to a "Hicks" pendant light.
Cropped photo from The Gathered Home.

Now I must stop this and get to the Pick 'n Save, and then sweep up half of ton of nut shells outside -- it's supposed to get up to 40 F today, woo woo!