DIY Vintage Book Lamp
Books are not just for reading or looking pretty on a shelf somewhere. You can actually upcycle them into a really awesome lamp. Now, being a book lover myself I wouldn’t dare use any classics or just go buy brand new books to complete this project. I would definitely just either use old books that are sitting around your house that are collecting dust. You know which ones; those or you can do what I did since I didn’t really have any books lying around I wanted to puncture holes in and that is go thrift shopping. You can even get hardbacks really cheap. I think I got like 5 for $4. If you don’t have any old books you want to puncture a hole in I would suggest thrifting for them because it won’t hurt your pocketbook.
Items Needed:
3/8 Titanium Drill bit
Impact Driver/Drill
5-7 vintage books
Lamp Kit ( I used the Westinghouse 3-way Socket Make a Lamp Kit from Home Depot)
Spray Paint (color of your choice)
Lamp Shade of your choice- I used a vintage egg basket I found on one of my junking ventures
Clamps (To hold the books in place as you drill the holes through them)
Before I really got started into this project the first thing I did was open the lamp kit. The Westinghouse lamp kit from Home Depot includes the 3 Way socket, harp, threaded pipe, cord, neck, vase cap. I spray painted the threaded pipe, and the socket. When spraying the outside of the socket be sure to tape off the inside that contains the parts where the wires will be connected. While the spray paint dried I moved onto getting the books ready.
Now I don’t necessarily have the tools in my collection that I would be able stack the books and drill the holes in them all at one time so I just did one book at a time. The first book is easy because there are no others that depend on it. The second book I stacked it on top of the first one just how I wanted it placed and marked my drill spot. Then I clamped my book down to my workstation and started drilling.
Just continue this same process until you finish drilling the holes into all of your books. You will definitely want to make sure you place your books how you want them and mark your spot before you take the book to the drill.
Once I finished drilling my holes through all of the books I checked to see if my spray painted lamp parts were finished drying. Fortunately they were so I began to place my books one by one through the thread. Continue until you are almost at the top. Leave like an inch or two for the top connecting pieces.
After stacking the books onto the threaded pipe it was time to finish the wiring. I used a combination of the back of the lamp kit package and several YouTube videos. I am a special kind who did not think to bookmark those YouTube video pages, but as soon as I find the videos I used I will definitely post. Basically all I did to find lamp wiring videos was to google “How to wire a lamp.” There are videos upon videos to choose from. I say choose the best one that you are able to follow and go from there. I promise it is not as complicated as it sounds. If I can do it anyone can and that’s saying something.
I fully went into this project wondering how I was going to drill through the books and pretty hesitant about wiring my own lamp because you know, well, electricity and possibility of being shocked or starting a fire. You know what though I freaking conquered this project and plan to do more book lamps in the future.
