PRODUCTION: Klara van Wyngaarden | PHOTOS: Dook
Buy South African wine by the box to obtain sturdy polystyrene packaging units. Save the box for our Bright Idea and turn one of the units into a bedside lamp.
What you’ll need:
• One polystyrene wine bottle packaging unit
• 3 lengths of electrical cord
• 3 plugs
• 3 light fittings
• 3 low-voltage energy-saving bulbs
• a 3-point adaptor
• 3M Dual-Lock self-adhesive velcro strips
This is how:
Lie down on your bed to measure the correct comfortable height of the lamp and mark the bottom position on the wall with a pencil.
Place the bottom of the polystyrene unit on this mark and mark off the top position.
Measure the distance from the nearest electrical wall socket to the top mark. Ask your hardware store (we used Builders Warehouse) to cut three lengths of electrical cord to this measurement.
Fit a plug to one end of each cord and attach a light fitting to the other end.
Secure two strips of velcro horizontally to the back of the unit, 10cm from the top and bottom. Make sure the velcro crosses the unit’s expansion slits, where it will secure the cords.
Attach the unit to the wall where marked.
Fit the bulbs to the cords and check that they are working by plugging them into the adaptor. (Warning: standard low-voltage bulbs will melt the polystyrene.) One by one, feed each bulb through the unit’s three bottom openings until 10cm of cord protrudes from the top.
Hold the bulb securely in one hand and use the other to press the electrical cord into the expansion slit, making sure it sticks firmly to the exposed velcro.
Now gently drop the globe back into the unit so that it droops inside.
Check that all three bulbs are level – and there you have an individual bedside lamp.
