Wooden Beam Table Lamp

Wood and metal. Two strong materials that cities are built with. Two materials I enjoy working with.

I received some large pieces of wood from a friend. They were remnants from a house they were working on (timber frame house at that, my favorite). The chunks of wood sat in the shop, as most pieces do, until the inspiration bug struck.

Some random day the inspiration bug struck and I had a lightbulb moment (pun intended) of what to make with that piece of wood. As with most things when I get an idea everything else will stop, until I can start working on the idea (I don’t want to miss out on the momentum).

I wanted to build a lamp by segmenting the pieces of wood. I had some rebar laying around and the two pieces just went together. Challenge was the piece of wood was thicker than my table saw blade was high, so with creative thinking I rotated the beam around to cut most of the way through and finished the cut with my handy Japanese hand saw. Next came drilling some holes for the rebar to fit. The holes were drilled so the rebar would fit snuggly.

As the pieces were fit together the vision I had in my head was coming to life. I love thinking of an idea and being able to creatively express that idea into the physical world. I also love when somebody approaches me with an idea for something they want built and trusts me to create it for them.

With the last coat of finished applied and dried the light bulb was tightened into the socket. The lamp was plugged in and came to life. I love the sweet glow from the Edison bulb and really think this lamp would look make a great addition to a boutique hotel or a home office.

If you are interested in this lamp or would like me to design a lamp for your space I would love to hear from you.

Fire Extinguisher Lamp

As a firefighter by trade, I am naturally drawn to firefighter decor. I have seen the traditional fire extinguisher lamps that use an old copper extinguisher. I had a vision for something a little different.

I had found an old carbon dioxide extinguisher at a flea market and was able to negotiate a bargain. As the extinguisher sat in my house I thought how it would look good as a lamp. Instead of using a pull chain or a nob to turn it off and on I thought, what if you could squeeze the handle. I set off to the hardware store and bought some lamp making supplies. This was my first ever try at a lamp and with a squeeze of the handle the Edison bulb illuminated and thought I was on to something.

This was in the pre-Maker and Finder days but there was a feeling of satisfaction finding something and re-pourposing it into a piece of functional home decor. When family and friends would stop by they would all comment on how great the lamp turned out.

After creating Maker and Finder, I used that lamp as a prototype to make another. So this is an old American LaFrance carbon dioxide extinguisher turned into a lamp. just like the first one I made, to turn on you squeeze the handle and watch the beautiful glow from the Edison bulb.

Book Lamps

We love to read. One day while browsing the internet I seen a picture of a stack of books turned into a lamp. The light bulb went off! A friend of ours runs a book store that sells $1 books. We made a stop at his store went home and turned some old books into book lamps. And these are some of our favorite projects. Finding something and making it into something beautiful.