Introduction: High LED Wall Lamp
A friend recently commissioned me to make a tall lamp for her living room. The room extends over two floors on one side. So the lamp shouldn't be too small and had to provide direct and indirect light. Phew.
The tricky thing is that the lower part of the lamp must not be drilled into the wall, as it contains a wall heater. But I'll solve that in step 2. Although it looks massive, the lamp weighs only 6 kilograms. This can easily be held by just one wall bracket.
Supplies
Wooden board (beech) 250 x 20 x 2 cm
Wooden board (beech) 20 x 20 x 2 cm
Acrylic glass ~ 130 x 20 cm
5m LED lamp (strip) with power supply unit
cable with socket plug
2x iron plates 9 x 4 cm
Steel bracket ~ 8 cm wide
solid wire
Router with 8 mm and 12 mm milling head
Table saw
Dowel router
Orbital sander
[linseed oil]
Step 1: The Board
Firstly, I milled out the two openings for the glass at the front. The two slots are each 3 cm wide. I had to make two slits instead of one because I couldn't find a piece of acrylic glass that long. But the interruption provides optical and physical stability.
Then I milled out the opening for the glass from the back. These strips are 6 cm wide. But be careful, this milling does not go all the way through the board, of course, but leaves about 6 mm of thickness.
I milled a small passage between the two slots. The LED strip will pass through here later.
I also milled a small cable duct 1 cm wide so that no electrics would be visible later.
Step 2: The Mounting Bracket
The lamp board is fitted with two spacers that are fixed with dowels. I use my dowel cutter for this. Of course, you can also use normal round dowels.
The upper spacer also serves as a wall attachment. I fix a metal bracket to the piece of wood so that it serves as a hook.
This hook is slid into a fixture that is attached to the wall with four thick screws. This way, the lamp can be easily attached. As you can see in the pictures, two metal plates serve as the sieve rails, which are held together by a wide metal band. I welded everything together and sanded it down again. I then drilled holes for the wall mounting.
The lower spacer is not screwed on (we are not allowed to), the weight of the lamp presses the board against the wall.
Step 3: The Glass
I couldn't find any acrylic milk glass that was long enough. So I made it myself.
I cut the strips of acrylic glass - 5 cm for the light strip - using a circular saw. Using an orbital sander (120 grit sandpaper), I sanded over the acrylic a few times with criss-cross movements. It is advisable to lay both strips next to each other so that the milk glass effect is uniform.
The finished glass is inserted into the slots from the backside and fixed in place with small nails. More support is not necessary due to the low weight of the acrylic.
Step 4: The Surface
When the woodwork is finished, it should be sanded. Don't forget the edges.
The desired surface treatment can now be applied. I have decided in favour of a light linseed oil.
Step 5: The Led Strip
I have a 2.5 metre high lamp and a 5 metre long LED strip. One half shines forwards through the frosted glass, the other half on the wall and provides indirect light. I use acrylic glass strips again as a mounting (3 cm wide). I attach ~8cm long pieces of solid wire to these with Tesaband. These - inserted into small hollows - hold the LED holder acrylic in position.
The LED strip must now be carefully fixed to the acrylic holder. These strips usually already have adhesive strips as standard, you just need to remove the protective film.
Step 6: The Mounting
After careful measuring and searching for hidden cables in the wall, the plate that holds the hook only needs to be screwed firmly to the wall. Now you can attach the lamp. Screwing at a height of over three metres was a little difficult, but hanging the lamp was easy.
Now you have to connect the cable that comes out of the wall to the cable of your plug that feeds the power supply unit. I use luster terminals for this. Pay attention to the colours of the wires! Disconnect the power using fuses before doing this!
If everything is wired up properly, the lamp should now be able to be switched on via the normal room button.