Craft Box Lamp

Why do I always stop and look at these wooden craft boxes from the dollar store?  I dunno.  Maybe because one day I knew I’d do something with them?  This time I brought 3 home with me.

I also bought a couple of bricks of clay (we’ll get to those in a bit).

I bought some Martha Stewart craft paint from Michaels.

and a lamp kit from Lowes

I removed the glass top from one of the boxes.  Remove all the front hardware as well.

These boxes are usually slightly rough around the edges (literally), so you’ll need to sand them nice and smooth with a sanding block before you paint them. 

With a little stencil sheet I stencilled each box on three sides. When everything was dry I gave them a coat of Minwax Polyurethane just to smooth it out at bit more.

Drill holes in top and bottom of each box.

Don’t forget to drill a hole through the back of the bottom box to allow the cord to come through.

I weighted down the bottom two boxes with the clay bricks.  These wooden boxes are ultra lightweight and I didn’t want the lamp to become top heavy when the shade was attached. To avoid drilling through the clay I cut the bricks in half, left the cellophane on and glued them down with hot glue.

You’ll need a long threaded rod, long enough to go from the bottom of your lamp to the bottom of the socket.  This doesn’t come with the lamp kit.  The brass rings (seen below) that did come with the kit were too brassy so I painted them copper.

Thread the rod through all the boxes and secure with lock nuts provided in the kit.  Push cord through rod and follow instructions on your lamp kit on how to connect the wires.

Add lamp shade and plug ‘er in.

(I need to get a smaller harp for the shade to bring it down a bit)

Not bad for starting with 3 dollar store boxes.

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