Insulator to Candle Holder Upcycle

I don’t frequent thrift stores very often. I know that’s probably breaking some sort of blogger code or something, but I’ve never been great at spying the gems in the midst of all the junk, so I’ve stayed away. When we decided to to a $10 thrifted challenge for Get Your DIY On this month, though, I knew that I would have to brave the thrift store anyway and try my hardest to come up with something good.

I happened to be visiting my parents a few weeks ago, and since a new thrift store/consignment shop just opened in their little town, I decided to pop over and check it out. Wow, was that place packed to the gills with “treasures.” 🙂 As I walked around the store, these three little (aqua, obviously) objects jumped out at me:

I had no idea what they were, but I thought the color was pretty, so I took them up to the front of the store and asked the owner about them. It turns out they’re glass insulators, which used to be used on power lines in some way. Because it was 50% off day (win!) I scored all 3 for less than $5. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I was a happy customer!

When I got back to my parents’, I looked up “glass insulator crafts” on Pinterest. Apparently, glass insulators are a “thing” in the craft world and I’ve been missing the boat all this time! People make lights and coat racks and photo holders and all kinds of cool things out of these! Since I’m always in need of things to hang on our walls, I decided to turn them into something that would fit that function, so I headed down to our garage and grabbed an old leftover 2×4 we had lying around.

Oh, it may not have looked like much, but I had big plans for it. I gathered a few other supplies…

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D-Ring Picture Hanger | Minwax Stain in Dark Walnut | Plumbing Clamps | Screws

This project ended up being super duper simple. I stained the piece of wood and let it dry overnight. Donnie attached the D-ring to the back and used a cordless screw driver to attach the plumbing clamps to the board like so…

Then I just slipped the insulators in, tightened the clamps, and I was done!

I popped some little tea lights into the insulators to make them candle holders, but I thought they might also be cute as mini vases with flowers or they could even hold pens and pencils or paperclips and thumb tacks if I used it in my office.

See, maybe I’ll become a junker after all! 🙂

I will tell you who is really good at this whole upcycle thing– my Get Your DIY On co-hostesses! Wait until you see all of the beautiful projects that they came up with for this month’s challenge!

$7 Piano Bench Makeover by April, House by Hoff

Mason Jar Flower Gifts by Mandy, The Hankful House

10 Thrifty Projects Under $10 by Christy, Confessions of a Serial Do-It-Yourselfer

Free Desk Makeover Using DIY Chalk Based Paint by Krista, The Happy Housie

We want to see all of your beautiful upcycles too! Be sure to join us for our monthly link party this Sunday, May 3rd to share all of your thrifty DIYs! See you at the party!

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