Was wandering around Asda with my wife, positively enthralled and beside myself at getting to go food shopping (I have to put that in case she reads this !).

In the hardware/homewares I spotted a nice looking Hurricane lamp, and thought that would look so cool with a very simple addition, and the end result being a very nice piece of furniture which has brought me many "smartie points" with the wife..

Step 1: White Is So Not In

First things first, why white ! Well, simply put, there were no brass ones to be found.

However, after a bit of ebay'ing, a brass fitting is on it's merry way to me.

So make do and mend until the perfect item arrives, I thought I'd tone down the white. ok, just get rid of the horrible colour..

Black being the choice was a quick matter of stripping down the bulb holder, a shake of the can and blast the thing until a nice even coat of black is on there.

Words of caution, do it in a well ventilated area, put a covering down to prevent overspray coating your garden furniture etc.. Also, as you can probably see, make sure it's not about to rain when you start !

Leave to dry, being the impatient type I made sure I used quick drying, and was able to handle the painted items in around 30mins..

Step 2: Preparing the Lantern

Next job, to attack the lantern.

If you notice there is a black circle in the middle, this is metal and glued in.

To remove this, I drilled a hole in the wood from underneath where the cable was going to go, and used a screwdriver and pushed the plate off, this required the appliance of a fair bit of force (small hammer) as it was glued in.

Next, I positioned the Lamp base plate, marked where the fastening screws to be and pre-drilled (2mm) the holes.

I would suggest that now would be a good time to use a cleaner of some sort and clean the interior as there will be sawdust on the glass from the drilling.

I fed the wire through the main hole and followed the wiring diagram that came with the light unit and wired it up.

Please, if you are at all unsure with mains wiring, get someone who knows what they are going..

Getting closer now, you guessed it, fasten in the lamp holder, being careful not to mark the painted surface.