Eureka moment

Here is my new-old table lamp. In the spirit of make-do-&-mend I re-fashioned a solid, carved wood lamp base with ancient wiring I found in a verge clean-up into the perfect lightsource for my dining room. The limitations I gave myself: must have the items needed in my house at that moment and could only take about an hour of my time. It was Saturday night after all.

So… step one was to establish if the limp light fitting and electics actually work. Hmmmm new bulb, power, but no light. So I took the plug apart (not difficult given it was missing its two screws) and noticed there was only one copper wire making contact. Not to be defeated by an absolute lack of electrical knowledge I search the web for a diagram of an Australian plug and connected the loose wire to the ‘A’ for active socket. Tried again and “Eureka!” (forgive me).

Step 2. Attempt to make the limp bulb socket part sit upright again by taping it into place vertically with some black electrical tape. Yay.

Step 3. See if spare IKEA ALÄNG shade would fit. Damn. Spend most of the hour struggling in forcing the ring over the horizontal ‘on/off’ switch of the lamp, realising once I’d achieved this that it was utterly pointless and try to reverse my action. Eventually using my metal nail file to file away gently at the hard plastic switch on one end until I could get it off.

Step 4. Wrack brains. (Can’t get this close to be defeated…)

Step 5. Having noticed how wide the circumference of the base of the new compact fluorescent bulb was I now attempt to gingerly balance the shade on this (don’t worry it doesn’t touch the glass part of the bulb). Y-ay. (Celebrate gingerly so as not to disturb it.)

Step 6. Functional, yes. Good-looking, mmmmhhh better if you couldn’t see the black tape and bottom of the light fitting. Think of fringing the bottom of shade. Try a few random things from my sewing box and voila! settle on some sheer chartreuse fabric tied around. A little like a scarf.

So there you have it. Not the most visually-to-scale lamp and base combination but given what I had, I am pretty pleased that I have something that lights the room perfectly and isn’ t too awful to look at. Got quite a buzz out the whole exercise. Dad would be proud.