I love lamps. In particular this DIY modern rustic wood lamp that now sits pretty on my nightstand.
My dad actually had this piece of salvaged wood just hanging out in his basement, and every time I would go visit him I would stare at it and think about what it could become. Yeah, I stare at wood like most girls stare at shoes. Call me crazy.
Anyway, the last time I was visiting my pops he saw me staring at the reclaimed piece of lumber all googley eyed, and told me I could have it since he hadn’t done anything with it yet. Woo-hoo!
I thought that the height was perfect for a lamp, especially since the bottom was pretty flat.
Side Note: You’ll have to forgive me for my {lack of good} photos during the process. I’m trying to figure out a better system of organizing my pics to make it easier to post my projects, because they tend to get scattered about on my dsl camera, iphone and ipad.
Here is what you will need to create your own modern rustic wood lamp:
- Salvaged piece of wood or log
- Drill
- Extra Long Drill Bit
- Lamp Kit
- Lamp shade
- Clear Sealer
The first thing I did was bake the wood in the oven on low {or about 170} for about 45 minutes to make sure it was completely dried out, and that there were no critters living in it {eeeeew}.
Afterwards we used a long drill bit to drill a hole down the center. You could go in at a diagonal, but we drilled straight down.
I decided to add a modern touch by dipping the bottom of the wood in some white paint. To do this I just filled an old plastic container with some white paint {I actually filled it a little more than necessary, oops}, and placed the wood inside the container.
I let it sit for a few minutes and then gently lifted it out of the paint and placed it on some wax paper to dry. Make sure you have a drop cloth or something underneath that you don’t mind getting messy because the paint could drip onto it. Then once it was dry I sprayed the wood with some clear sealer.
I had a white/beige lamp shade I had purchased on clearance from Target a while back that I originally planned to use, but it was too shiny and just didn’t look right. So I swapped out lamp shades with another lamp in our house I purchased from HomeGoods a few years ago, and then painted the new “borrowed” shade with some navy spray paint. I love how this shade has texture on it, which I thought would go well with the texture of the wood base.
Here is a crappy photo of my lamp shade all painted. The spray paint stiffened the texture a bit, but I don’t mind.
The threaded pipe {or technical term “IP zinc-plated nipple”} that came in my lamp kit wasn’t long enough, so I purchased a pack of different sizes and used one of those instead. The pack I purchased is on the bottom right in the photo below. I only needed one, but now I have some for later in case I need a different size for a future lamp project 🙂
You can then follow the instructions on your lamp kit {available from most hardware stores or online}, screw in your lamp shade, a bulb and plug it in. Boom, you’ve got a new lamp! Just think of all the lamp possibilities at your fingertips!
Here is our new DIY modern rustic wood lamp on our also recently painted nightstands.
Have you made your own lamp before? If so leave a link to your post in the comments below, I’d love to check it out!
Feeling inspired to do some woodworking?