Upcycling a Broken Stool to a Night Lamp

It was a beautiful idea that weirdly hit me when i saw a broken stool lying in my college studio. Since i first noticed this stool till i picked it up, only one thing kept running in my head - Lamp lamp lamp! :)

Its was a simple project on which i spentRs 158 - again keeping up to my principle enjoying maximum luxury with minimum effort and expense!

Step 1: Things I Used -

1. Black enamel high gloss paint ( 50ml tin ) --- Rs 25.
2. Paintbrush --- Rs 30.
3. Scale , blade , pencil --- already had them.
4. foam board / any hard layer --- used foam board as i already had it.
5. Bulb socket --- Rs 20.
6. Electric wire 4m--- Rs 28.
7. 1 Gateway sheet --- Rs 30.
8. Electric tape --- had them.
9. Bulb (warm white - 10w) --- Rs 20.
10. M seal glue --- Rs 5.
11. And of course the amazing STOOL --- free.
12. And The most important -- some free time , patience and interest :)

*Note - the bulb i used in the pictures are a CFL bulb i used for testing.

Step 2: Painting the Stool -

• As mentioned earlier i used black coloured enamel high gloss paint.
• Spread out a few newspapers so that the floor below is kept clean from the paint.
• Turn the stool upside down and place it on the newspapers.
• And then as you guessed, turn the stool black :)
• I let it dry overnight.

Step 3: Electrical Part -

• First the foam board is trimmed and cut to the exact size so that it sits in the gap perfectly and is fixed in the space between the stool without any glue or adhesive.
• Once the foam board sits in place, the center on it is assumed and the bulb socket is placed on it.
• The outline of the bulb socket is drawn out.
• Then the foam board is taken out and the center of the already drawn bulb socket circle is marked and a hole is made on it using a blade.
• The electric wire is passed through it and connected to the bulb socket as shown.
• Once the connection is made the socket is fixed to the foam board - for this i used a little bit of M seal.

Step 4: Covering Up the Stool -

• Now that we have the electrical part of the lamp done, only thing left to do is covering up with the gateway sheet.
• Before that, we neatly tape up all four sides of the foam board with the black tape. This is done to avoid any white part of the foam board to be seen after gateway sheet is fixed.
• Now comes the time consuming part - fixing of the gateway sheet.
• Measure the sides and shape of the gap and cut out a larger piece of the gateway sheet for each side.
• For faster and easier ways, i suggest you get a helping hand with the following part.
• Start taping the gateway sheet to the sides of the stool and to the foam board at the bottom.
• Follow the same steps for all sides or as i've done it - 3 sides.
• Fix a bulb to the socket and get ready :)

Step 5: AT LAST!

• Smile :)
• Turn off all the lights and turn on your beautiful ucycled stool turned night lamp!
• There you go. I also played around with a colourful bulb and it was so very trippy :)
• For my daily use i use a 10w warm white bulb which is of very low brightness, which is perfect for my late night laptop use.
• The picture was too dark with that bulb so i didn't bother uploading picture of it.

And ignore the part where i have taken pictures in the bathroom. That was the only place where it was a little dark in the daytime and i didn't have the patience to wait for the night :)

Hope you guys liked it :) Would love your take on it :)

Thank you :)