World Globe Pendant Lamps, plus DIY tutorial

This project is an easy DIY for anyone: Take a cute vintage World Globe (this one even has a slight raised relief!), separate the two semi-spheres, adapt bulb sockets, wire them(*)... and voilà! a pair of groovy pendant lights, great to be hung low on top of a dinning table or at different heights in a kid's room corner.

(*) See the 'making of' pictures below for a more detailed description on how to achieve this result. If your Earth globe is a translucid plastic one you can skip the painting part, of course, but in any case adding the trim will guarantee a 'professional finish'.

Measures: 28cm diameter, 16cm high. The cord is 2 meters long,as the lamps are best displayed hanging low and/or at different heights

Making of, step by step:
In the first picture you can see the main parts, before the making started: you need the two halves of a world globe, two white bulb sockets, plus two washers (optional) and lamp nipples, 4 meters of white wire, two ceiling cups, two wire connectors and two hooks, white plastic trim. (Not shown) A drill 10mm drill for soft metal, primer and white semi-gloss spray paint, glue and pegs.

Start by drilling a bigger hole on both 'poles' (the cardboard is reinforced with a metal insert in those areas). The diameter should be 10mm, enough for the pipe that fastens the bulb socket -the so called 'lamp nipple'- to go through.
Prime the cardboard inside the semi-spheres, wait for it to dry and then spray white enamel paint (thin layers, as even as possible!)


Once the paint is dry, add the white plastic trim (just glue it, using small clothes pins to help the plastic rubber stay in place till the adhesive sets), and finally assemble and wire the lamps.

Note: if you're not too sure about how to wire a lamp or don't want to do it, just buy a complete ceiling lamp kit and cut a bigger hole on the poles of your globe, to enable the already wired bulb socket to fit in.

2 comments:

  1. This project is an easy DIY for anyone: Take a cute vintage World Globe (this one even has a slight raised relief!), separate the two ... iglobelamp.blogspot.com

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  2. This was really an interesting topic and I kinda agree with what you have mentioned here!
    Pendant Lights

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