How to Build a Lamp From an Antique Vase

Create a mount for the socket to convert even widemouthed vases.

You can craft almost any vase into a lamp using an inexpensive lamp kit, which you can find in the electrical section of big-box general and home improvement stores. When converting an antique vase, however, preserving its value means you can’t drill holes for cords. To protect your valuable vase from meeting with a disfiguring power drill, only use lamp conversion kits that feature a wire that exits through the side of the lamp socket instead of the socket’s bottom.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Cardboard
• Scissors
• Plywood
• Jigsaw
• Spray paint
• Chandelier ceiling canopy with open center hole
• Pebbles or sand
• Bottle lamp kit with side socket cord
• Slip uno style lamp shade
• Lightbulb

Instructions

1. Measure the mouth of your vase and draw a template of the opening. Cut out the template and fit it inside the mouth to ensure that you measured appropriately. The template should fit snugly just below the inside of the vase’s rim.

2. Transfer your template onto a section of plywood, and cut out the section using the jigsaw. Paint your plywood piece to match your vase; you can skip this step, but it will make the piece less obvious in very widemouthed vases. If you want, you can also paint the chandelier canopy to match the plywood piece.

3. Line the rim of your canopy with construction-strength adhesive, and attach the rim to the center of the plywood piece. Allow the glue to completely dry.

4. Fill the vase with sand or decorative pebbles before you fit the piece into the mouth of the lamp. The weight will anchor your vase against the weight of the shade and light kit.

5. Fit the appropriate “stopper” from your bottle lamp kit into the hole at the top of the chandelier canopy. Insert the bulb socket into the stopper.

6. 

   The slip uno style lamp shade eliminates the need to install a harp or other hardware.

   Place the lamp shade’s “slip uno” fitter onto the socket. This fitter type sits on the socket. Screw the bulb into the socket and plug the lamp into an outlet to test your completed vase lamp.

Tips & Warnings

• Carefully match your lamp shade to the vase. Aside from matching size, color and style, consider the lamp’s shape and intended use as well. For rounded vases, use cylindrical, drum or cone-style lamp shades; boxier lamp shades better fit squared, urn-style or Victorian vases. When selecting the lamp shade, study the lightfastness of the shade. More translucent fabrics create all-over, ambient light, which enhances activities such as reading. Darker, more opaque shade fabrics cast light to specific areas below and above the shade, making them a better choice for decorative or mood-setting lighting.

• Always wear eye protection when using a jigsaw. Paint and glue in well-ventilated areas.

References

• “The Decoration of Houses”; Alexandra Stoddard; 1999
• “Southern Living”; “Three Steps to Turn an Object into a Lamp”; Julie Feagin Sandner; June 2005

Resources

• Apartment Therapy; Turn This Into a Lamp?; Maxwell-Gillingham Ryan; October 2006
• “Country Home”; “Let Your Light Shine”; Leslie Grete; November 2007