Scavenger Chic

DIY Tree Floor Lamp

• By Joan
• January 22, 2020
• 8 Comments

DIY Tree Floor Lamp

What do you envision when you find a beautiful straight log, not too big, not too small, with the perfect amount of patina. If you’re like me you see a DIY tree floor lamp.  All you have to do now is talk your husband into grabbing his chainsaw to chop the beautiful log into lamp sized pieces.  Actually, that part wasn’t too hard, he loves using his chainsaw.

And that is exactly what happened when we were visiting my sister’s cabin in Virginia.  Beautiful log… grab your chainsaw…chop chop…lamp.

OK, so maybe it took a few months between chop chop and lamp because I did need to gather a few supplies.

What you’ll need…a lamp making kit, a log (mine is just under 5 ft tall),  long nipples and a top and bottom decorative piece if desired.  You can cut your own wood disk or find one online like this one at Michaels.  I also got a 12 ft lamp cord to replace the 8 ft one that is provided in the kit.

The circle piece, of which I’m using two of them, was originally screwed onto the leg that has the blue painters tape at the top of the picture.  I have 4 of these in my possession which I won at an online auction.  I was told that they were grand piano legs. While the legs are super cool, at 22″ they are a little too tall for a coffee table and too short for any other table.  Maybe if I use the round pieces I’ll actually get around to using the remainder of the leg for something else.

Before you get working with your tree, decide how tall you would like your lamp to be and level out both ends.  The tree should stand on its own, it may not be the sturdiest thing without a base, but it should balance.

Sitting so beautifully in the woods, I never noticed all the insect damage until I got it home.

I’m using all that insect damage to my advantage.  Originally I was going to wire my tree like you would a jar lamp and have the cord coming out from the top because there was no way to drill a 5 ft hole, but because the bark was so loose on the one side I could easily channel out a hole and snake my cord down the length of the tree.

Keep all your bark  in order, cause you’re gonna have to reattach.

With my 3/8″ super duper long drill bit, I’m drilling a hole as far down as I possibly can, about a foot.

This is not exactly how I drilled my hole.  You’ll just have to picture me standing on a stool in the middle of my workshop drilling straight down into my tree.

Hollow out your insect/cord channel.  To the left is the top of the lamp.  At the top of the channel I had to drill another hole in to the center of the tree to meet with the 3/8″ hole coming from the top.

My holes finally met (which took way longer than it should have) and I was able to snake my lamp wire down the tree base. The lamp wire is secured with extra wide staples.

Now on to my grand piano leg.  The hole for the top was a little too wide for my lamp nipple.  Trace around the hole onto a piece of scrap wood and cut out.

Use wood glue to attach making sure the top is level and let dry.

Sand any rough surfaces and finish.  This is with one coat of  walnut danish oil.

Drill a 3/8″ inch hole thru the center to match the one you already drilled in the log.

Use builders adhesive and a few finishing nails to secure the top round to the tree base.  You may want to insert the lamp nipple before the finishing nails to make sure the holes are perfectly lined up  (not that I would know anything about that 😕 ).

Time to hook up the lamp.  I’m going to refer you back to my post How to Wire a Lamp for all the nitty gritty details.  Do this before you enclose your wire just to make sure everything is in working order.

Time to close him back up. 

I used wood glue just on the sides of the bark pieces so as not to interfere with the lamp cord then painters tape holds everything together until dry.

I sanded the top and bottom edges of the log where it was slightly larger than my wood end pieces.

A coat of white wash evens out the color of the tree.  One side of the tree was the gray color of driftwood, the bottom part, where the sun didn’t wash it out as much, was much browner.

The whitewash is about 3 parts water to one part paint.  Use more water if you’d like a thinner coat of paint. This is leftover ceiling paint, the kind that starts out pink when wet but dries to white.

**hint, my sister tells me not to use this stuff in the bathroom cause every time the room has moisture the paint turns pink again  🙂

I needed one more piece.  While the lamp did stand upright, a wider base would reduce the topple risk. One more circle piece…I was thinking a wood round when I spied this rusty metal piece hanging in my workshop.  Do you hear the angels singing?  It’s absolutely perfect!

You may be wondering where the heck you get something like that.  Well let me tell you, I picked this up while vacationing in Maine in 2001.  The family was exploring the tidepools when we found this piece where the tide had receded.  It’s been sitting around ever since. Yes, I have always been a scavenger.

Here it is underneath the grand piano piece.  

Sanded most of the big chunks of rust off and rubbed some of the same danish wax I had used for the other wood pieces onto my Maine rusty piece.

Could that base be more perfect?.  To get it attached I predrilled 4 holes with a metal drill bit…not a drill bit that’s metal, but a drill bit that is made to drill thru metal 🙂 then used  long screws to attach to the rest of the floor lamp.

Final touch was a lampshade.  The large lampshades I usually use were way too small for this jumbo sized floor lamp. Did you know the larger lampshades run  $60 , $125. and even $180. So much for my inexpensive floor lamp. After much searching I was thrilled to finally find one at Lowes, for a bargain at $33.

Finally complete.  Would you believe the hardest part of this entire lamp was matching my hole coming from the top with the one at the top of the channel.

One more project complete from my yard sale haul back in August.

Technically, I did not buy the tree at the yard sale, but since hubby was kind enough to chop it down that same weekend it got thrown in with the rest of my flea market finds.  My pile of junk is still coming together.   Of course there is the tree floor lamp, but you will also find the wire spool table, a bar cart, the  shelves made from the desk drawers,  lamps made from the jack stands, a star made from tobacco sticks, whale weathervane from a jack, coffee table from silo doors, and a pair of raised stencil headboards from a free roadside find.  Click on any of the links for the full DIYs.

As always, stay inspired.

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