DIY Minimal Wood Lamp

by Kimberly Smith

7 Materials

$25

1 Hour

Easy

This is a simple diy wood lamp. I love the simplicity of it and the natural elements of the wood base with a fun pop of color in the cord. If you have never wired a lamp before, I promise it's easier than you may thing.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Large wood dowel (I found mine at a local specialty lumber yard)

Drill Bits: 5/8-inch, 1/4-inch, and 1/8-inch

Porcelain socket

Cloth covered wire (I got mine from Color Cord Company)

Rubber plug end (I found mine at Home Depot)

Thumb switch

Necessary tools for wiring a lamp: wire stripper and electrical tape

Start by preparing your wood dowel. Find the center of the dowel (I kind of winged it) and drill a pilot hole using the 1/8-inch drill bit. Then, using the 5/8-inch drill bit, drill down from the top of the wood dowel. Stop boring out the wood when the hole is just deep enough to fit the porcelain socket. You want the socket to fit just under the top of the wood.

Once you have bored out a hole for the socket, start drilling further down with the 1/4-inch bit. I had to flip my dowel over and drill from the bottom in order to drill all the way through the dowel. Next, drill from the side of the dowel in towards the center until you meet the middle.

Feed the cloth wire through the holes until you have one end poking through the top and the side of the dowel. Attach the socket on the top end and the rubber plug on the other end. For detailed instructions on wiring a socket, check out this post. Wiring a rubber plug end is pretty much the same.

The cloth wire I purchased had a ground wire included. There was no need for a ground wire for this project (since my plug only had two-prongs), so I simply clipped off the ground wire and pretended as if it wasn’t even there. At this point you can also attach the switch. I ran out of time (as one with an infant does), so the switch isn’t attached in these photos.

Finally, firmly (but gently!) shimmy the porcelain socket into the hole. We (and by we I mean my husband) wrapped the socket in electrical tape to prevent it from wobbling around.