Log Lamp: Mistake That Worked

To tell you the truth this is a project that went through lots of downtime on the backburner, mistakes, and almost throwing it in the garbage. I think I'm happy with the result, but we'll have to see. Let's take a journey through the process.

I started this back sometime in January. Have you ever seen a cheesecloth ghost? My idea was to do a cheesecloth log. Easy right? Wrong. I got a log and some white gauzy fabric.

 I covered the log in plastic bags. First I tried dipping the fabric in sugar mix. That didn't work. Then I tried it again using liquid starch, my old friend. That worked really well.

When I took it off it looked like this. It did stand on its own, but it didn't look like a log and the ink from the plastic bag came off onto the fabric.

 

My next "bright" idea was to paint pale yellow wood grain onto the log. I thought it would cover the ink and give it subtle detail. The paint went on thick and didn't cover the ink very well. I then tried adding some rows of stitching to give it a wood grain look, and I redid the starch over a bucket. It started to look better, but it wasn't quite there yet. Also, the lamp I had underneath only lit the log halfway, and it had a card that little babies could grab onto.

Next, I used hot glue to make wood grain and spray painted the whole thing white. This was a big improvement.

I tried to cover all the stitching with the glue. Some of the yellow shows through, but it's a lot more subtle which I like.

I got a tip from Nienke who showed me a tutorial for making animal lamps (which I'm going to use to make an animal lamp for Henry's room). The same idea carried over to this log lamp to use a strand of LED lights inside instead of a lamp. I got a strand of battery powered LED lights so no cords would be tempting to little hands. This is the lamp during the day with the lights on.

and this is the lamp at night with the lights on.

 

I really like the lamp now. I'm really glad I kept working at this and didn't put it in the garbage. I like that it's mostly white, it looks like a log, it has detail and texture, and it looks good. I can easily move it to another shelf not near a plug. I'm not worried about it falling and breaking because it's fabric and a strand of lights. It wouldn't hurt a child if it fell on his or her head. My front room is slowly turning to a nature feel so this fits in perfectly. The only thing I would change is it's still now very bright at night. It doesn't give off much light. I think when I make Henry's lamp I'll put this strand in that one and get a longer, brighter strand for the log lamp.