Floor Lamp -- mixing Modern and Natural forms

So this has been a long time in the works, and the biggest project I’ve completed to date. I always wanted to make a floor lamp where the whole thing is laser-made, not just attachments to a pre-made base, or a lamp shade.

I first started by constructing a square beam of sorts using 1/8" Birch Ply. It’s capable of concealing a cord for a lamp, but it also allows me to build much larger objects with this material. Here’s a partial example of the next project I’m working on:

So it allowed me to construct a piece 4.5 feet tall. I used a simple IKEA Hemma cord (with switch) and ran the cord up from the bottom inside the square beam and down the center, putting a paper lantern shade over it in the center, using a hue bulb to allow for smart home control. I then added an LED strip all along the sides, putting in a Wifi controller so I can control that with Alexa too. I made two additional forms and then padded the width with corrugated cardboard, giving me the size I wanted with materials that were essentially free (harvested from Amazon shipments) while keeping the whole lamp very light.

Then I used flexible hinge cuts to shape wood that covers the gaps along the sides (the circle part of the lamp made the square beam bits a little complicated. Then I stained (a decision I wish I’d made at the BEGINNING of all this).

I also concealed the intersecting parts with panels that I designed to snap into place (it was actually really satisfying to pop them in.)

I then decorated with some simulated “stained glass” fake ivy (see PETG technique developed a couple years ago, plus some green floral wire for stems and brown paper floral wire for the branch )

Unfortunately the PETG didn’t work as well for the large top and bottom sections. As it was, the protective film wasn’t enough to blur the light from the individual LEDs as I wanted, and then the white spray paint I used looked fine until you tried to pass light through it:

So I buckled and picked up some translucent white acrylic from Delvie’s Plastics to get something that gave off an even finish, even when lit up, solving fo the flat edge along the way. I wish it let MORE light through, but… the even light passage at least makes it look… not like crap.


I’ll probably add another strand or two of the fake ivy, and tweak the leaf placement/angles, maybe finish the bottom a little more, but overall I’m pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out.

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Wow. Looks awesome

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Oooh very clever! Thank you for linking your diffuser acrylic, that’s a really nice look you got.

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Thanks for sharing this.

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Looks great, good write up too

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Amazingly unique lamp! Nice job.

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You did a great job! Nice to be able to tweak until we get what we want.