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DIY Glass and Slate Tile Lamp

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DIY Glass and Slate Tile Lamp

Here’s my DIY lamp story. My mother had a beautiful mercury glass lamp sitting on a side table. My son and dog were playing at her house, and long story short, the mercury glass was shattered on the tile floor.

Here is what was left.

So here is what we did. First, we purchased a piece of PVC piping to fit over the center pole and two square foot pieces of glass and slate mosaic tile.

We roughly measured the length of the pole of the lamp up to the base of the switch, and then cut the PVC pipe to the same length. You will see later why I use the word “roughly”. Sorry I failed to photograph this part.

We spread mastic on the cut PVC pipe with the flat side of a trowel.

Then we simply wrapped the tile pieces around the PVC pipe. Would you believe it fit perfectly around??? LUCKY!!! I apologize again, but I do not remember the size of PVC pipe I used, so if you plan to do this, take your tile you plan to use and wrap it around PVC piping in the store before you buy it to find the perfect size pipe.

After drying for 24 hours, we grouted the tile.

Then we used Great Stuff to spray inside the PVC pipe to hold everything in place. You have to spray this stuff in slowly and wait for it to swell before spraying more. Take your time.

Now, remember I mentioned that we “roughly” measured where to cut the PVC pipe? See, our intention was for the pipe to be level with the bottom of the switch so we could fill the PVC pipe with Great Stuff all the way to the bottom of the switch then trim it off level with a knife. That would then serve as a base for us to also tile the top of the lamp right beneath the switch. Is that as clear as mud???

Unfortunately, our measurement was off a hair and the pipe came up too high for us to tile the top, so I had to come up with an alternative way to top it off. Granted, this would not be visible once the lamp shade was on, but I just wanted a finished look. So I bought a sheet of decorative metal from Hobby Lobby and made a template of semi-circles to fit on either side of the base of the switch, then cut the metal using the templates. Here is the final result of that:

Not exactly what I had it mind, but it will do, since you can’t see it anyway.

Now with the shade… a beautiful new lamp. What do you think? I’m thinking I like it so much I might buy some cheap lamps with a skinny base and make a couple for myself!

Scripture for thought: “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”

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