DIY Twine Pears: How to Upcycle Your Old Lightbulbs Into Chic Rustic Decor

What do you get with old lightbulbs, very old cinnamon sticks, and some leftover twine? Rustic decor, obviously. Having seen several versions of these DIY twine pears on Pinterest, I was eager to try this myself with some old twine and ancient cinnamon sticks that I uncovered at the back of my pantry while moving (no lie, they’re probably at least two years old). While the other tutorials call for an apple stem or yard twigs instead of cinnamon sticks, I didn’t want to go hunting in my yard for the perfect twigs and we didn’t have an apples. I added the white ribbon for an extra pop of fancy, because I was getting a little tired of looking at all that brown.

Here’s what you’ll need:
– Twine: I had leftover 1mm twine that can be found here, however, I would recommend buying a thicker twine around 2mm to make your life easier so you can cover up the bulb quicker.
– Hot glue gun and lots of hot glue gun sticks. Each pear uses about 2 sticks.
– Cinnamon sticks
– Old pear-shaped light bulbs
– White ribbon

Start by rolling the twine into a spiral and placing a dot of glue to make the beginning and glue it to the top center of the lightbulb.

Then, slowly glue your way around each rotation of twine. As you get towards the widest part of the bulb, glue about halfway around the bulb and wrap your twine around it before moving onto the next half so that the hot glue doesn’t dry before you get to it.

When you get to the base of the bulb put a generous dot of glue in the center and put your cinnamon stick on top

Start gluing up the base of the cinnamon stick and wrap the twine around it for added support.

Tie a bit of white ribbon onto the stem and voila! You’ve got yourself a pear.

These make great centerpieces in a live-edge bowl, in a large hurricane candle holder stacked on top of each other, or scattered about wherever you think needs a bit more rustic, twine-y, pear-y decor.

These also make for a great TV-watching activity, because does anyone else find wrapping layers of twine around a lightbulb oddly relaxing at the end of the day? No? Just me? Bueller?

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this inspires you to find a second home for all your old lightbulbs!

“Recycling turns things into other things, which is like MAGIC.” – Anonymous