apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It's so sleek and futuristic looking. Never would guess its secret past!

I like it - hard to say from the photo but I bet the light coming through the pin-holes would be nice.

very cool!
does it give off enough light though?

I love the green walls too. can you provide info on the paint?

My mother would hate this. I heart it.

LOVE IT, but then again, I'm a total sucker for salvaged/re-purposed stuff like this. I appreciate the "saving old stuff from the landfill" angle, but what I really adore is that a utilitarian object like a washing machine barrel gets to have two dramatically different but useful lives.

Very cool. But isn't it heavy? You'd need some serious reinforcement in the ceiling.

awesome!

this is soo awesome, will have to make one. we use an old barrel covered with a grill for fires on cold nights :) works great.. now i'll have to get another one for the lamp!

better than most that are sold in stores

Ooooooh. Very groovy, baby!

"Very cool. But isn't it heavy? You'd need some serious reinforcement in the ceiling."

Not really - It's no heavier than other things some folks have hanging from their ceilings...

I like it alot - very creative re-purposing.

This debuts at number 1 in my list of things to do when I have some free time. I seriously love it!

LOVE IT! Will be making one for myself soon!!!
I've seen lots of free broken/not working washing machines on Craigslist, now I know what I can do with them.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Did you have to paint it black, or was it originally that color already?

I'm a sucker for a cool repurpose. The light this casts is awesome. Great find!

Love it! I didn't know what it was until I read the article.

Super cool! And I love the wall colour.

I bet the newer ones are lighter weight. This would also be great for a patio setting. Maybe hanging from a pergola or other type of sturdy structure.

could be cool in a laundromat or industrial space....

Absolutely love it - but I suspect the catch is that the drum has to be black. The typical washer-white would lose so much of the contrast that makes this thing pop. As seen here, it's awesome.

Now That is one VERY cool lamp! I really like it! Definitely love that it's got a black chrome color and sheen to it.

Karen

I'm not seeing black; it looks more like stainless steel to me.

Brilliant idea!

There is a student cafe a few minutes away our apartment where all the lampshades are made from washing machine barrels of different sizes ... it looks absolut spacey and cool.

great use of the 3R's!

Probably it MIGHT look like sh*t live but it looks yummy on the pic AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS. lol

If the ceiling can't hold it, you could still put it on a table and use it like a desk lamp.

Looks like a cheese grater to me

anna ryder richardson did this on bbc's changing rooms in 2004. (and who knows where she saw it first). she used two as bedside table/lamps with plexiglass tops. nice but not new.

Super flipping cool!

What I love about it most is that it looks completely beautiful and abstract and not recognizable (to ME at least) as anything other than a beautiful light fixture. Sometimes it's kind of fun to see it's original purpose in something, but that sometimes leads to sort of a junkyard-chic or kitchy-cool thing. This is neither -- it's JUST very good-looking.