From Streetlamp to Floorlamp

Recently we had to clear out an old storage room in the theatre . In a corner I found these two old streetlamps and I decided to give them a second life as floorlamps.

The first step is quiet obvious I think: take it apart!

As tools I needed some screwdrivers and wrenches, no big deal here and very quickly done (this lamps are meant for easy maintenance).

This lamp was living in the corner of a very dirty storage room and of course had a first life as a street lamp, it was veeeery dirty. Lots of dirt, dust and dead bugs...

I just used water with soap and some old rags and gave it a serious scrubbing. The result was amazing, especially on the clear cover....

As the result of the cleaning session was very good, the lower part of the lamp did shine through the clear cover. No problem, when the lamp is 10m above your head, but not very nice on a floor lamp, so I decided to cover it up.

I made a quick template out of paper, checked an adjusted the size and then transferred it onto a sheet of PVC. In the first attempt I made one just for the lower half, but didn't like the result. So I made another to cover up everything exept the mirrored area around the bulb.

As the original lamp socket was meant for larger bulbs I had to exchange it against a standard E28 socket (had to drill a 10mm hole for it).

I also added a ready made lamp cable with a switch.

The original socket is meant for the use on a wall, so it needed a sort of a wedge underneath to stand upright. I decided on about 25° to tilt the head of the lamp slightly forward to get the center of the weight towards the middle of the base.

At first I planned to make a base from a solid block of wood, but I ended up with a more simplistic version: Four metric screws, and some acorn nuts.

If you choose so, you can still mount this lamp on a wall. Just get rid of the "base screws".

Now the lamp is finished. Put it in a nice spot and enjoy the new source of light you just created.

If you want to own this lamp, look out for it on etsy or dawanda. It's for sale...