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Boredom Led to This DIY Skateboard Chandelier

Gregory Han
Gregory Han
A Los Angeles native, Gregory’s interests fall upon the relationship between design, nature, and technology. His resume includes art director, toy designer, and design writer. Co-author of Poketo's "Creative Spaces: People, Homes, and Studios to Inspire", you can find him regularly at Design Milk and the New York Times Wirecutter. Gregory lives with his wife Emily and their two cats—Eames and Eero—in Mt. Washington, California, curiously investigating the entomological and mycological.
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published Mar 4, 2013
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

College student and Reddit user misterpiggies shared a DIY project which he describes as born out of boredom and an obvious affinity for skateboarding, resulting in a 4 bulb ceiling lamp with some obvious street (and crafting) cred…

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Upon being prodded by fellow Reddit members for some details so they could build their own version, he explained the process:

Materials: Skate deck, 1 1/4″ PVC, weatherproof sockets, a 1 3/4″ hole saw, and tons of epoxy.

 I started with a used board which I got from a skate shop for $5. Then I went over to Home Depot to get the electrical parts. My Home Depot didn’t have any sockets that had two sockets at a 180 degree angle, so I instead bought four weatherproof sockets, explanation for the weatherproof sockets coming up.

 To mount the sockets, I used 1 1/4″ PVC T fittings with a thread on the T, and two slips on the sides. The weatherproof sockets fit almost perfectly into the 1 1/4″ slip, and are very snug with two wraps of electrical tape. I guided the wire through the T and epoxied the sockets in place, so there would be no play and no turn when installing bulbs.

 To mount the sockets to the board, I cut 1 3/4″ holes in the board between the places where screws from installing trucks would be. This allows a 1 1/4″ screwed bushing to fit through, but the flange at the end prevents the whole bushing from falling through. I screw-tightened the T to the bushing from the other side and epoxied the whole thing in place. After the epoxy set, the whole thing was sturdy enough to wire without worrying about whether I moved the positioning of the bulbs.

 Wiring the fixture was done while it was unmounted to the ceiling. To mount to the ceiling, I used a standard threaded tube for ceiling fans and ceiling fixtures, which I cut with a hacksaw to the desired length. I drilled a hole through the center of the board and used nuts and washers on both sides of the board to secure it in place. After the fixture was secure, I attached the wiring to my existing electrical connections.
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

But misterpiggies isn’t the first to devise this idea. Bad Guy Labs went vert, converting an old deck into a giant, indirect wall mount sconce.

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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Similarly, artist Beston Barnett’s piece KickFlip captures the most basic of skate tricks and turned it into a dynamic freeze framed series of flips and turns in CFL illuminated chandelier form.

(Images: misterpiggies; Beston Barnett)

 

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