So this exciting project started with a bargain bin, as many of my projects do. At Bunnings I found a smart home enabled downlight as the remaining light left in a two pack, if the other one was stolen or returned I'll never know. I noticed that this downlight simply plugs into standard wall plugs so I knew immediately I wanted to use it as a lamp on my bedside table to give me lovely soft and versatile lighting.
So this light stayed on my bedside table and was used for many months, just awkwardly sat there, as you could imagine it was pretty blinding and guests would make fun of how stupid it looked and how it had a real tendency to fall off the table. Basically as is it was an extremely poor solution.
So after the initial purchase I found what I was looking for at an op shop (charity shop) to kick off the project. A kmart-garbage lamp for $4 that could barely light a pitch black room. However the key part that I found was the perfectly sized cover/diffuser.
This diffuser was simply taped to the lamp and served me for another couple of weeks while I worked up some ideas for the lamp. I filled two pages of my notebook with a wide variety of ideas until eventually deciding on a very achievable design that suited the use of the diffuser well. Since part of my design would be 3D printed I first completed a model in Fusion360 to get the dimensions looking organic.
This CAD model took me a little outside my comfort zone and forced me to learn a couple of new skills. It was also super beneficial to model the non-3D printed parts so that I could keep my eye on how it looked all together as I went and was even able to play with colours.
So whilst I left the print to run I started on the base. The is was simply made out of scrap pine from an old project, cut with an incredibly crap Dremel circle cutting tool (only bought because it was also in the bargain bin) and tidied up with a lot of sanding.
When sanded all the way to 240grit and oiled this really made this lamp stand out as more than just a 3D printed project and gave it some much needed colour in the end. It also gave a significant weight to the finished project which means it won't be falling on the floor anymore (yay!).
Now because downlights are designed to simply fit in and hold with springs I designed this to do the same, the only fasteners on the whole project are two screws mounting the timber base to the 3D printed middle section which would allow for easy repair if the light itself ever failed.
The next task was to oil the timber and paint the 3D print. It is very important with painting 3D prints that you first prime them otherwise it can be hard to get a good finish on the paint.
Huddo's Hot Hint: If you want paint for projects like this as a maker get test pots for as little as $5AUD and they'll mix whatever colour you like, you get a high quality paint and if you ever needed more you have the exact mix on record. I mostly just keep an eye on the cheap $1-$2 miss coloured pots on sale and collect those, I now have most colours I could ever need and since they are small pots they don't even take up much room!
I really loved the shape and I think that green goes really well with the oiled timber however I immediately knew that because the base had to be so tall to accommodate the downlight it was just too much boring blank space across the green. My initial thought was to paint nice flowers on it to make it very 'cottage-core' however when I talked with my wonderful friend Janet who has helped me paint several projects now she had some really interesting ideas for how to paint it that I liked a lot more.
She had the idea for topographical map and this was so perfect. It made it interesting without being busy, was relatively simple to execute and even played really nice with the theme of outdoors with the paracord, timber and green. She executed it so well and of course she now has her initials burnt into the bottom like mine!
This lamp produces perfect really soft light and being able to change both the colour and brightness makes it super versatile. This was a slow burn project that took a while for the pieces to fall into place. However I am so proud of the result! It looks and feels fantastic and suits my needs perfect. Janet I can't thank you enough for your wonderful contribution, its perfect.
There isn't much if anything I would change about this project. Honestly its just given me the confidence to tackle more similarly sized projects. My roommate has just moved out and taken my favourite lamp with him and I'm keen to design something to replace it in the coming months.
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