This small lamp diffuses a warm and soothing light fit to bring life to any space. The circular pops of color on the lampshade mirror the finger holes on the rotary, which spins, offering an engaging sensory experience through touch and the sound of gears clicking and turning. The phone can be picked up, and carried as far as eight feet away from its stand.

REPURPOSED ROTARY PHONE LAMP

Materials: Beaded Lampshade, Shower faucet (2), Escutcheon, Western electric rotary phone, Spring cable

For the lamps base, I utilized an old pine chest I had found in in a barn I helped to demolish a year prior at my old job. I carefully removed the brass screws and pulled off the handle and latch. I then cut the lid in half, filled the gap I created by pulling a piece from the section I didn’t use. I removed the brass corner caps from the half I didn’t use and transferred them all onto the same base. The old stain on this box almost matched the maroon velvet base of the rotary phone, but was damaged and worn so I sanded it off and re-stained it adding a few layers of clear polyurethane.

Before completing the stand, I epoxied two salvaged shower head wall mounts with a smaller copper pipe to insure proper bonding and an escutcheon to meet the base nicely. This provided the means for centering the lamp shade over the rotary phone while still allowing the phone to be picked up and a wire to pass down through the hollow pipe into the wood base.