Designing a Lamp

Soon after displaying my furniture at the 2018 Architectural Digest Design Show  The Architectural Digest Design Show Has Come and Gone, I wanted to continue exploring lamp designs based on columns or pedestals. It was my intent to create a family of lamps using one simple but versatile format, and my Yellow Art Deco Lamp was my first effort.

Classic Design Elements

This simple design focused on the classic elements that compose a column or pedestal:  Namely a base, central column and a capital.  Not to mention adding a few secondary elements like a sterobate and a stylobate to spice things up.

The second consideration was to honor the Art Deco period by establishing a simple design with a bit of repetition. Topped off with a glossy finish.

And lastly, I could only use materials found within the shop. Nothing could be purchased, other than the electrical components, which made this a healthy challenge.

Before building, I fired up my computer and began rendering.  What’s great about CAD is that you play with layers, create something visually pleasing, and then accurately determine the size of every element.  I pushed and pulled for a while generating 15 to 20 options before settling on my basic design.

Executing My Plan

Then, I headed off to the shop to transform my drawings into my Yellow Art Deco Lamp. The building process didn’t take very long for I had a pile of scrap waiting to be transformed into something of value.

In the end, the most time consuming task was applying the lamp’s finish: a dozen or so coats of primer, yellow lacquer and clear.  The yellow I chose was the same color appearing within my Gold Leaf and Mahogany Bar.  It’s a favorite color of mine and I thought it needed to be utilized somewhere else.  In this case, on my Yellow Art Deco Lamp.