Magical Starry Night Light W/ Wood, Foamboard & Fairy Lights

by darbinorvar

11K16417

Intro: Magical Starry Night Light W/ Wood, Foamboard & Fairy Lights

I wanted to make an interesting night light featuring the stars and constellations, and I wanted it to be a pretty easy build that anyone could make. So for this project I decided to work with foam board and then add some wood accents to make it more stable and add some nice contrast.

Products & Tools Used (Affiliate)

STEP 1: Foam Board & Constellations

I just used a regular navy foam board from the craft store and I printed out a map of some constellation. First I tested out the idea to see if it was something that I liked, and I thought it turned out pretty cool.

STEP 2: Creating a Hexagon Shape

So at this point, I cut out the navy board, I went with a size of 15 inches long (380 mm), 7 1/2 inches tall, or 190 mm and I marked 2 1/2 inch (63 mm) segments which I cut, half way through with an exacto knife for the folds.

STEP 3: Punching the Holes

I cut the ends at an angle so they would ccome together nicely

After that I used the constellation maps to mark out where I wanted these holes, and I turned these maps upside down and around, not sure if that's accurate, but I thought it filled out the space better. And to cut out these holes I used leather punches in three different sizes.

STEP 4: Wood Base & Top

Now if you don't have access to wood, you could certainly cap this with more foamboard, and that could be really cool. However I decided I wanted something with some weight to make it a bit more stable, and decided to use some CVG fir, although any wood would be nice.

So we cut up two hexagon shapes on the bandsaw, that were just a little larger than the foam hexagon, so there will be a bit of an overhang. Also, some small pieces for feet.

STEP 5: Attaching the Feet

To provide light for this I'm using one of these fairy lights with a battery pack and I want to keep the battery pack at the bottom of the light, so the feet need to be high enough for that. I used six feet, one for each side. And I figured the easiest way to put on the feet would be to just use glue and a nail gum. And then just drilling a hole for the cord.

STEP 6: Attaching Battery Pack

To keep the battery pack in place I'm using velcro, cause then it's easy to take it off to replace the batteries. And I'm also adding some epoxy for extra staying power. And then continuing with the epoxy to assemble everything together.

STEP 7: Gluing the Top, Middle & Base

It's hard to get the foam board to set perfectly, I tried clamps but that was really hard to get right, so just really using rubber bands, and then I got to work on the wood part right away before the foam board had time to set completely.

STEP 8: Finish

For a finish, just some spray lacquer which is nice and quick.

STEP 9: Conclusion - Watch the Video


To see the light in action, and to see each step of the build more clearly, make sure to check out the video!

11 Comments

Yoruk 6 years ago

Very beautiful. How it looks like on the walls ?

MarcelS9 6 years ago

Hi Linn, I've been following your channel for quite some time now. You've got lots of really cool projects! Creative ideas in abundance obviously... I also like how you built your workshop - impressive.

On the other hand I'm often a bit disappointed with how little care for a nice finish you implement those ideas. Why do you smear so much epoxy onto the base when you attach the foam board to it? Putting epoxy onto the foam board instead would give you a much nicer "joint" (no excess glue). Also, we hardly see the seam of the foam board but it ain't pretty. The hacked edge we see in "Step 3" is an indication that it'll be difficult to get a smooth seam like that.

A few improvements that came to mind:

  • If you made the first or last side of the foam board ~.5'' wider than the others you could cut away the foam leaving only the paper and use that as an overlap for a nice seam.
  • It would be nice if you could remove the lid (service access).
  • Place the battery pack inside and to do away with the feet.
  • To avoid problems with foam board not setting perfectly you could
    • make a furrow with the router in the base and the lid, clue the foam board only to the base
    • or instead to keep it simple: make two additional smaller hexagons that fit exactly inside the foam board and glue them to base and lid

MarcelS9 6 years ago

Argh, the comments don't even support bullet lists properly i.e. they were removed upon saving. Sorry if the above is a bit hard to read.

emanh6 6 years ago

الله ،،،فكرة بسيطة ورائعة