DIY Diamond Lamp

This month I am challenging you to whip up some high/low storage, however, I couldn't resist a little high/low home decor DIY project as well.  Although not storage related, I have been in the market for a lamp update in our living room.

After we went with neutral walls, we have by slowly bringing the color back into the room in new ways.  I started by saying bye bye to the cream curtain panels and replaced them with navy stunners.  The next item on the list with the bone colored lamp which was also paired with an ivory lamp shade.  Blah plus blah equals blah.

Knowing that our current lamp was from Pottery Barn years ago, and still a classic lamp in mint condition, I couldn't bring myself to painting it.  I wanted to bring in something that would add some visual interest to our credenza, yet not cost a fortune.  I have been crushing on these beautiful geometric options that I have seen pop up in retail stores recently, but ranging in price from $100-$450, they just were not an option.  So, we made our own!

The shape of the lamp was basic, so we used some scrap MDF to create the base.  We measured the lamp that was on the credenza previously, and tried to come close in size.  Each rectangle was 6" wide by 14 1/2" tall.  The center square for the top of the lamp was 5 1/2" wide and tall.

We assembled the pieces by pairing wood glue with our brad nailer.

Once the base of the lamp was assembled, we puttied any gaps and nail holes, and sanded everything smooth.

The base of the inspiration lamp boasted a chunky piece of acrylic.  We made a few mistakes during this process and the first was purchasing the acrylic prior to cutting our lamp.  We initially figured our lamp would be 7" wide, so we went to our local Ace Hardware and had them cut acrylic at 8" wide.  We had them cut the thickest acrylic they offered, and because they didn't have anything as thick as the inspiration lamp, we had them cut three pieces for us to stack for a total of $8.  We super glued the acrylic pieces together {in the center of the acrylic which would be hidden by the lamp base}, and added some rubber feet to the bottom.

After the acrylic pieces were glued, we realized that the lamp was going to be too big at 7" wide, and reduced it to 6".  This left a slightly larger lip of acrylic at the bottom than what I was going for, but in the end it still looked so pretty.  However, I recommend putting together your lamp base prior to having your acrylic cut to be sure you are getting exactly the right dimensions.

The next step was to prime and paint the base of the lamp white.  Sorry, photos are lacking, but it was as basic of a paint job as it gets.

Once the white paint was dried, I started taping.

I am not going to lie.  This process took me over two hours of patience and dedication.  It was tedious and time consuming, but with every new line I was more and more jazzed about how it was looking.

I used 5/8" thick tape.  Mistake number two was that the painters tape was not "edge locking".  Thinking that I was taping on a flat surface made me believe I would be OK and I used inexpensive off-brand painters tape that I already had on hand.  There was some bleeding under the tape which ultimately led to an hour of manual touch ups. 

As far as how I was able to achieve the pattern, I started by finding the center of the front of the lamp.  I placed a piece of tape which was a perfect diamond of 5/8" x 5/8".  I then used a few scrap strips of tape to create an even spacer around the diamond and worked my way out.  Once the front was done to match the inspiration, I used that as a guide to work around each side.  A sharp utility knife paired with a straight edge is useful in slicing the tape edges.

After the entire base was taped off, I rolled on two layers of green paint.  I waited about an hour in-between coats and pulled the tape after the second coat was almost dry.  The color is Martha Stewart's Cornichon.

To be sure the tape didn't pull the base layer of white, I lightly scored the tape with the utility knife prior to pulling.  It also helps to use a flat paint for the base coat, as glossy on glossy can cause added tape pulling and coverage issues.

Once the lamp had dried for a bit, Bryan installed an inexpensive lamp kit found at Home Depot.  Drilling a small hole in the top and another in the back at the base, the kit was quickly installed making this lamp fully functional!  Oh happy day!

I paired the new lamp with a shade I had in our storage room.  It is a smidge small so I will be keeping my eyes peeled for something a little bigger, but for now, it is getting the job done and we are in love!

We are excited to be welcoming green back into the living room mix!

The geometric pattern was just what I was longing for.  It adds color and interest to the area.  I almost cheated and just went with basic stripes, but now I am oh-so-proud that I stuck with the tedious taping process!

And there she is complete with a balloon photo bomb.  A color happy ending to this high/low story.

Have you been embracing the high/low challenge this month?  How about any fun lighting DIY projects?