DECEMBER 20, 2013 | BY JC MILLER
Whether it’s baking cookies or getting crafty, winter tis’ always the season for a little DIY indulgence. So to celebrate the season, we took on a little lighting project of our own.
Looking around the office, Marcia and I came to the conclusion that the mismatched collection of desk lamps accumulated over the years were not meeting the office need for task lighting or style. What to do? Online browsing brought forth any number of sophisticated options (super functional, high tech, low energy use, etc.) BUT, multiplying the price tag to put one on each work station brought up a number that was more than I paid for my first car!
A DIY option seemed like a better bet. Elbow style fixtures and lawn sprinklers gleaned from non-mainstream sources such as Urban Ore, the Alemany and Alameda Point flea markets provided the raw materials for recycled lamps that seem to be the right fit for a landscape architect’s office. While decidedly low tech and still mismatched, the lamps, outfitted with energy efficient CFLs sprinkle a little colorful cheer to our workstations that will last well past the holidays. Now what to do about the chairs…