The "10 Minutes" Ambient Light

I have a RGB wireless controlled bulb. I have a socket with cord and plug. I have some white foam rubber plates.

And I need an ambient light for my home office working place. This light shall give me a warm backlight in the dark mornings during winter time.

So this is what I did.

For this 10 minutes project you need:

• an RGB wireless bulb (or any other technology for controlling the bulb, what fits best with your smart home setup)
• a socket for the lamp, preferably with a cord and plug attached
• a foot for the socket, so that it can stand stable
• some thin foam rubber plates for handcrafting (in Germany we call it "Moosgummi"), for the ambient light effect they should be white
• scissors, some glue, some small magnets, a paperclip

Please keep in mind that making a lamp like this you must not use a "normal" light bulb. Only LED light bulbs are possible because they keep cold enough during operation. Using other kinds of light bulbs might lead to meltings or burnings.

First you need a robust and solid foot for having a stable lamp at the end. Use some wood or - like I did - some old parts of wooden toys.

I glued them together for having a solid block afterwards.

I use a socket with a cord and plug attached. There is no switch in between which I do not need.

If you have to put the parts together be careful you work with high voltage and you have to know what you do.

I use some screws for attaching the socket to the solid wooden foot. You can glue it with hot glue ether. the LED bulb do not get warm during operation. It will stick.

For the lamp shade I use two sheets of thin foam rubber. The size is A4. Color should be white for having the light effect afterwards.

The shade consists of two parts. The first one is a smaller one. The template for cutting it out will be right for a standard E27 LED light bulb.

Attach the smaller, inner shade with some glue or a paperclip. Ensure that the open "V" looks inside the room.

For the bigger, outer shade you do not have to cut something. For easier mounting I've glued two small magnets at the edges. So I can wrap it around the smaller shade.

Now ensure that the open "V" of the outer shade looks to the wall.

That's it.

Now it's time for programming the home automation.

Every workday I start around 6:20am at my home office. During the winter time it's really dark in the morning. I want to enter a warm and cozy place. So I turn on the light at 6:15am and turn it off 2 hours after sunrise every workday.

Annotation: I use home assistant and can program this automation with an ease.

Additionally I set up some scenes and connected them with my Alexa.

I can say "turn home office lights on" or "turn home office ambient on".

For the normal light I use warm white with 100%. For the ambient light I use orange with 60%.

Now you can play around with colors and sequences. I've attached some more colors hre so that you can see how this easy lampshade looks like.