Soccer Cone Party Light

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.

Step 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.

 

Comments

[gemtree]

It looks really cool but those cords are made for light weights. VERY light weights. When you have a heavier lamp shade than the original paper one, a chain should be added, attached through the plastic cones and the cord run through the chain. (the chains have open ends on each link so can be pried open if the plug end is too large to thread through. The cord can be slipped through the opened side.) This way, the electrical cord won't separate from the attachment to the bulb holder. I really love the color!

[funkdelux121]

The lamp looks freaking radical... I'm gonna go straight to Amazon and order the cones... I already have the Ikea cord...

Thanks...

What other crazy projects are you working on?