I’ve made no secret of our love for found furniture and recycled goods — half of our apartment furniture has been literally picked up off the street. (See the dresser from the bedroom blog.) Sometimes, RocketMan finds a bit of trash that’s every bit as useful as furniture, even if he doesn’t know how useful it’ll be when he finds it. And sometimes, when we’re purging old items from the apartment, we land on something we just can’t bear to part with. We’re also big fans of lighting concepts (I’m a fan; RM is the true connoisseur), so naturally, the favorite answer to “What should we do with this?” is “Make a lamp out of it!”
Making lamps is, as far as I can tell from a distance, totally easy. Well, actually it ranges in difficulty from totally easy to Who Had This Idea So I Can Smack Her? (Laine and Dave, send me pics of the awesome Ski Boot Lamps and I’ll post them.) These lamps both fall in the Totally Easy category, fortunately, and were constructed and finished within a day.
 Canola Lamp The Canola Lamp RocketMan came home from the restaurant one weekend with this empty jug that formerly housed roughly a quarter-keg of Wesson canola oil, and we had our traditional conversation: “Why did you bring that home?” Clean it he did, and after a few experiments, he landed on this design: a hole cut in the bottom to vent the heat (light bulbs is HOT!); and the light itself is just one of the long cords ending in a light socket that you can pick up at a hardware store or, in this case, Urban Outfitters. (I bought it for a lamp I’d had in my old apartment.) The socket was slightly larger than the spout of the jug, so he slipped it through from the inside and glued the fixture to the lamp. Add a 40-watt bulb—brighter than we usually use—and presto, a lovely golden light that fills a room nicely. All for the bargain price of nothing. |
 Vacuum lamp The Hoover Lamp When I moved into the RocketDigs fiveish years ago, I brought with me a vacuum cleaner that had been designed after cell phones became popular. RocketMan wanted to toss this old beauty, but my love of household appliances (see the toaster) wouldn’t allow it. The Hoover Lamp was thusly born. This one’s even easier than the Canola Lamp—after removing the bag and the tubes, RocketMan jammed a wire-framed worklight into the base (see below). Because it’s a decorative lamp, it’s plugged into a timer set for 7 PM – midnight every night. The light it sheds is diffuse, patterned, and has all the charm you’d expect from a 30-year-old vacuum cleaner. Well, all the charm I’d expect.  Inside the Hoover |
Jody- Next time I’m in Tahoe, I’ll take some close-up shots of the ski boot lamps for your portfolio. Love the blog updates….