I wanted to make a floor lamp specifically designed for reading - so in other words, a high quality, bright light, tall built etc... The other goal was to make it affordable and pretty easy to build. I also made a complete build video of this project where all the steps can be viewed in further detail.

Products used:

Quad Row LED Strips: https://amzn.to/3mu9O5g
Dimmer: https://amzn.to/3fSU9LE

24v Power Supply: https://amzn.to/39P8LI8

Step 1: LED Lights

In terms of the lights, we're using these quad row 24v LED strips. They're definitely a little expensive at $89 a roll, but, you're only using like a foot for this project, so you could make a ton of lights with it.

These lights are really densely packed so we're cutting them into smaller sections and soldering together, just to distribute the light a little bit more.

Step 2: Wood Parts

For the shade and the bottom, using some left over oak boards. Since we have access to a cnc, decided to use that to carve out a section for the lights to fit in, however you could just as easily do this with a hand router.

And then here flattening the base and cutting it into a circle with a hole in the middle where the leg can go in. And this piece of wood was so thick that the cut needed to be finished on the bandsaw. Also, flattening the piece with a planer, and rounding the edges over on the router.

Step 3: PVC

Now, for the leg part, where using pvc which is cheap and easy to work with.

Here is a dimmer switch, and this is fitting into the elbow piece. In order to make it fit, doing a little cutting to get it to sit in there where the dimmer switch is accessible.

Step 4: Wooden Shade

So the idea is that the lights will be attached to one side of the shade, and then the wiring of course needs to go through it into the pvc pipe which connects to it, and that's what this hole is for. Also rounding the corners over a bit with a router to make it nice and clean.

Step 5: Aluminum for the Shade

OK, so here's the shade, and some aluminum which the lights will attach to and which also will work as a heat sink. So just gluing that on using some pvc glue and then drilling a hole through so the wires can be fed through.

Also spraying the pvc parts with some paint, and using some matte black spray paint here.

Step 6: Soldering the Lights

Here are the lights and just gluing those onto the aluminum, and soldering on the last wiring.

Once they're all glued on, time to solder on the last piece of wires that'll connect them through.

And just holding the wires down in place with some hot glue which works really well. Of course testing the lights throughout to make sure you don't have any loose parts.

Step 7: Knob

Now for the dimmer switch, we thought it would be nice with a wooden knob, to kind of match, and give you something to kind of hold on to, so doing a little turning.

Step 8: Gluing

Here's the base, and just drilling a hole through into the center hole so the wires can connect, adding a barrel plug, so that can connect to a power supply.

And then doing final soldering on the shade, and putting everything together. Attaching the dimmer switch here. To secure the pvc to the wood, using some epoxy.

Step 9:

And feeding everything through - soldering the wires from the barrel plug in the base to the main wires and then feeding it all through into the pipe and connecting all the pvc parts together.