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This is by far the easiest and my most loved DIY. When I initially saw this tumbleweed light in a Terrain ad, I knew I wanted something similar somewhere in my house. I started searching online for “plaster tumbleweed lights” and “tumbleweed lights”. The tumbleweed trend hadn’t hit yet, so the options were sparse and expensive. The only thing I could find was a $900 tumbleweed from overseas. But that single tumbleweed, planted the seed to the idea that maybe I could DIY my own tumbleweed chandelier.
Eventually, I gave up on the idea, mostly because style-wise, I couldn’t figure out where it would fit inside my home. Once we completed the pergola last year, it was just begging for a tumbleweed light. Luckily, I live in the desert where tumbleweeds are plentiful. After confirming with my husband that the things on the side of the roads everywhere, were in fact tumbleweed (I’m a desert transplant, originally from the evergreen part of the state), I decided to just make the light myself.
After some light convincing, my husband drove me 15 mins from our house to a field of tumbleweeds. Gloves and pruning sheers in hand, we navigated through the prickly landscape to find a large symmetrical sphere of a tumbleweed. Hauled it home and went to work designing a plan.
I wanted to keep this “build” easy and free, so I shopped the basement for all the needed materials.
Here’s what you will need and what to do to replicate this light.
Materials needed to make your tumbleweed chandelier:
- Large tumbleweed (you can purchase them on Etsy if you don’t have a desert field nearby)
- Gloves -Tumbleweeds are prickly suckers
- Medium-sized Garden shears – to cut the tumbleweed from the ground
- Bungee cord with hooks on both ends
- Plant hook
- Corded Christmas lights
Steps to make the tumbleweed light:
- Find a field with growing tumbleweed
- Select, cut, and transport your tumbleweed home
- Clean your tumbleweed as best as you can
- Wrap your bungee cord(s) in twine, decorative cord, or ribbon. I used twine because I wanted something that would withstand the elements.
- Wrap the outside of your tumbleweed in Christmas lights
- Turn the tumbleweed over and stuff some lights inside the tumbleweed. Be sure to stand back often to make sure you are getting even coverage
- Install your plant hook wherever you want the tumbleweed to hang
- Hang your tumbleweed lights
- Plug in and enjoy*
*We are discretely running an extension cord from the top of the pergola to an outdoor outlet.
Pro Tips:
- Looking for the perfect tumbleweed is like looking for the perfect Christmas tree, you’ll want to look at it from all sides and take a tape measure with you.
- I would recommend getting a growing tumbleweed – before it has detached and tumbled, rather than a dried one. It is more green/brown in color, rather than the whitewashed dried ones, but it isn’t as brittle, and I think it will last longer under the elements. Ours is fully intact after a year of wind, snowstorms, and a usually rainy Spring.
- Tumbleweeds are home to lots of tiny things that crawl. Line your car with plastic or take some really large trash bags to transport it home. We didn’t do this and had a ton of spiders (small ones) in the car for weeks.
- Use a leaf blower to rid your tumbleweed of creepy crawlies, especially if you plan to hang your light indoors.
- Tumbleweeds are extremely prickly (at least the ones we have out here), garden gloves designed for rose gardening are best. I didn’t have those and used regular garden gloves after starting with my husband’s leather gloves. The leather gloves provided protection but were bulky, the garden gloves allowed me to get the lights inside the tumbleweed without breaking too many branches, but it came at the cost of some scratches.
Alternative design – You can also hollow out the tumbleweed and install a single light kit. This wasn’t the look I was going for but could also look pretty. Solar-powered chandelier lights are an option I initially considered.
Let me know in the comments if you plan on attempting this or if you need me to ship you a tumbleweed (joking, sort of).
If you are interested in where our garden started and all the work we have put into it so far, read my Garden Transformation post.
