After living in the dorms on campus for the last two years of college, my friends and I decided that we wanted to live in a house off campus. We scrapped together furniture from our family and friends and set about making nice place to hang out. One thing we were definitely missing was party lighting so I wanted to change that.
A while ago I remembered seeing a picture of a floor lamp made out of traffic cones and I thought that this would make a sweet light for our new place. Since all I had was a picture in my mind of what it looked like, I devised a way to make my own hanging version for our living room, and on a college level budget.
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials and Tools Needed
The first, and hardest part, was tracking down suitable cones. Regular traffic cones “borrowed” from around would be too thick to let light through. I tried Dick’s Sporting goods, Target and Walmart looking for practice soccer cones but I could only find the flat discs and cones with spirals cut into them. Neither of these would work either so I set off in search online. I found a set of 12 9” cones on Amazon.com for under $20 with free shipping so I placed my order and set about buying the other needed parts. A trip to home depot netted me a 75 watt florescent bulb and some zipties. I bought a florescent bulb because it would not get hot enough to melt the cones once the lamp was built. I also tried an orange florescent bulb, but the results were not as spectacular, so the white one was used.
The last piece of hardware needed was the lamp fixture and cord. Over the summer, I visited my brother in Baltimore, MD and while we were there I made my first trip to IKEA. I immediately fell in love with the store, buying many cheap items I could use in future projects. One of the things I picked up was a light cord and socket intended for their hanging paper ball lamps. It was $4 and would be perfect to not only power the light, but also hang it by. I believe it was from their HEMMA collection.
The only tools that I needed to use to build the lamp were my drill, a drill bit big enough to fit the zipties and wire cutters to trim down the excess.
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I am in the middle of decorating my 8yo son’s bedroom, and my theme/design is based on Cars and Travel, !!! AVOIDING !!! Any of the predictable cheesy car Deco designs that's UN-original and childish!! I want his room to be innovative with the WOW Factor ! using new and reclaimed items and accessories where the room can evolve with him into his teenage years..
I’ve already been to the scrap yard and collected many things like: - Car grill badges, rear view mirror and I got car wheel Rim to make a table with. I’m also researching eBay for number plates and road signs.
The most expensive item bought so far ... but well worth it , is a real cool wall art vinyl from eBay. It’s a life size image of a Ferrari. with the illusion that it’s just smashed through the wall (see picture attached)….. And the headlights glow in the dark to!!......... How cool is that hey!! .
Well for a Girl I’m not doing too bad so far with the designing ideas :), but would appreciate any ideas or suggestions you or other members have, or maybe you have seen another project here on “Instructables” that you think would be a good addition to my room theme. I’m quite handy with power Tools so it will be no problem with my DIY initiative and skill's .
So looking forward to hear some good insparasional answers from the very talented peeps here. I will gradually start uploading photos and info of my project as i go, so people can follow my progress and see my own designs develop, also watch how successfull i get on with design ideas offered to me from other members. So please feel free to comment about the recent photo's uploaded or just for a chat and brain storm
Thanks
Thanks...
What other crazy projects are you working on?