Custom Floor Lamps

I am an avid Pinterest and Etsy scroller, and recently, I have been coming across countless posts selling extremely well made custom floor and table lamps. Most of these lamps are made of carefully carved and shaped wood, and they sell for pretty astounding prices. There is no shortage of these hand crafted lamps selling in the high hundreds, and a plethora of examples selling for thousands.

I am going to explore what really goes into making these lamps, as well as profit margins and consumer demand. After, I may just have to start building lamps myself. Let's get into it.

When designing a lamp, there is quite a bit of room for artistic expression. The only requirements being that it stand on its own and produce light. Most of the wood lamps I see selling follow smooth curves and feature beautiful natural wood tones. For designing my own lamp, I will start by sketching a few potential concepts. After deciding on my favorite, it may be necessary to consider some technical elements of the lamp that may not have been included in my initial concepts.

Making sure your lamp will stand sturdy, and not be knocked over easily is incredibly important, so whether you may need to extend your lamp's base, or add more structure to your lamp, be confident in your design's integrity. You may also need to allocate facilities to house any electronics necessary for the lamp to function; this could be anything from a channel to house your power cable or a lightbulb housing.

Here's a few of my initial concepts I came up with, as well as a second draft of my favorite with added modifications to the structure and lampshade.

After completing your design process, you will need to formulate a plan to go about building your lamp. It is important to have an achievable design. Don't be the person who spends hundreds on the perfect piece of wood and materials just to realize what you are trying to build is impossible. Think about each step you will need to perform to bring your concept to fruition.

Here are a few of the steps I planned for when thinking about my own design:

1. How to achieve the desired shape of the lamp.

I will need to choose a woodworking technique in order to create the curved design I am going for. One method is to bend the wood using steam, however, I have never attempted this technique, and I do not have the equipment to do so ready, so I am crossing this option off the list immediately. My other two options are to source a piece of wood wide enough to cut the general shape of the design out directly, or by linking smaller pieces of wood together using dowels and plenty of wood glue.

Connecting smaller pieces together would probably be the most cost-effective way of achieving the shape, but this method may also produce small- but visible seams along the width of the lamp. I worry these seams may be enough to take away from the natural flow of the curves, so for this design I would definitely lean toward choosing one piece of wood wide enough to cut the shape out of.

2.   How to hide the electrical wires within the lamp.

This is definitely the number one question I ask myself as I scroll through other craftspeople's lamp designs; especially with floor lamps that seem to be made out of one solid piece of wood. I don't have a six foot long drill bit, and even if I did, I don't think I would be able to drill a curved hole like my design would require. The method I would most likely employ is to either split my work piece in two length-wise, then route a channel for the wire to rest in, or to source two pieces of book-matched wood, create a similar channel, then glue the two pieces back into one. This may create a seam, but if done correctly it should be hardly noticeable along the grain of the wood.

3.   How to connect the base and light fixture.

If you are building your lamp for yourself, you most likely will never need to take it apart, but if you are selling your lamp on the internet, it may need to be shipped in pieces then assembled by the new owner. Take this into consideration when deciding on your preferred method of construction. With my lamp design I would probably opt for a strong bolt to connect the base to the body of the lamp.

Depending on the light fixture your design calls for, the connection between it and your lamp body may require more careful consideration. If your design consists of a bulb hanging from the top of the lamp, you will have much less to plan for than someone attaching multiple bulbs or lamp shades.

Once you have your plan of attack, it is time to execute. If you are attempting any new techniques, try it out on some spare wood first, but be confident in your plan. If you find something isn't working as you planned, don't force it. Go back and figure out a solution that will work for you. If you are stuck, head to google and do some research. There are countless forums and creators with highly valuable information on woodworking all over the internet.

If you don't have a tool for one specific step, look around online for shops or people in your neighborhood that rent tools. This can be an affordable way to go about a technique you may never have to use again- without spending hundreds on a new tool you will never pick up again.

Assuming you don't already have your own webstore, the best site to sell your work on is Etsy. It may be a saturated platform, but it is tried and true. Advertising your lamp on sites like Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, and Craigslist is a great way to reach more potential buyers. You can also post about your piece on social media to expand your customer base. The place I see most of the furniture and decor I would consider buying is Pinterest.

If you prefer making deals face-to-face, look into local farmers markets, craft fairs, and flea markets. These events may require you to bring more than a single product, however.

I have picked ten of my favorite lamps on Etsy. Over the next month, I am going to watch to see which sell, what they sell for, how long it took to sell, and what materials may have costed if I was to build the same lamps. Look out for my follow-up post for some insights into the custom lamp market.

If you would like to follow along with any of my projects, you can follow me on Instagram for updates or look for final build videos on YouTube. You can also subscribe to this blog to receive an email notification every time I post. Subscribing is free, just make sure to confirm your email! If you would like more details of the build processes, sneak-peaks, or you would simply like to support my endeavors further, consider checking out my Patreon. Thanks for reading, much more to come soon.