Introduction: $3 Pottery Barn Lantern Knockoff

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About: I am an Industrial Designer, who obviously loves to create. Now that I am a mom, most of my creations are inspired by my daughers. I believe that if more parents were making stuff with their kids, the world wo…

If you want a stylish house, but you don't have power tools or a big budget this instructable is for you.

I'm going to show you how to upcycle a bottle and use dollar store materials and tools (just a cutter and a glue gun) to make this awesome lantern.

I got the inspiration from this pottery barn lantern. But it's $99, so I made it with less than $3 in less than an hour. You can make one even faster because I'll share with you the templates I designed.

So let's get started!

Step 1: ​ Gather Your Materials:

  • White foam board ($1 at the dollar store)
  • White cardstock ($0.50 at the dollar store)
  • White acrylic paint ($1 at the dollar store)
  • A little shampoo bottle (I got mine from a hotel)
  • Spherical bead
  • Glue gun
  • Cutter
  • Paintbrush
  • A pencil
  • Ruler

Step 2: Cut the Sides

Draw a rectangle with an arch inside on the foam board.
Cut it and use it as a template for cutting three more. We'll need four of these.

Tips for cutting foam board:

  • Use a really sharp blade
  • Place your cutter as horizontally as possible.
  • Don't attempt to cut it fully at the first cut.
  • It's better to apply light pressure and pass the cutter several times until it cuts every layer.
  • Try to have a clean cut, bit if it's bumpy don't worry we can fix it later.

Step 3: Make the Bevel

Draw a line 5mm from the edge, at each long side of the rectangles. It will help us to make the 45o cut we need for assembling the pieces.

Positioning your cutter on a 45o angle, cut the bevel. It's simpler than it looks. Just try to go through the line you just draw. As you won't use a ruler this time the cut won't be perfect but don't worry, it won't notice.

Step 4: Cut the Bottle

Now cut the little bottle in four parts as shown in the picture. We'll use the two at the middle. Paint these two parts with the white acrylic paint.

Step 5:

With the glue gun stick the four "walls" of the lantern. The bevels will make it easy and they'll give a clean appearance.

Step 6: Make the Top

On the card stock draw (or print) the template I made. Click here. Cut it out.
With your pencil (or mechanical pencil without lead) mark the curves, it'll help folding the card stock. Glue it.

Step 7: Fix the Bumpy Edges

To fix those bumpy cuts, cut a strip of card stock the same width as the foam board and glue it.

Step 8: Glue

Cut two foam board squares, one for the bottom of the lantern and one for the top of it.
Paint the bottle pieces and the bead with white acrylic paint. Glue them as shown in the picture. Finally glue all the parts and we are done!

Step 9: Enjoy

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And if you want more DIYs and free printables I've done, visit my blog.