white lamp on a wood console table

Lamp Makeover: Changing Your Lamp Cords

Beau Wynja
white lamp on a wood console table
When you spend your days surrounded by lighting products, it’s hard not to want to fix all of the ugly lights out there. So sometimes, we go out there and transform the most boring, old, and run-down designs into something original and unique. In this first installment of our lamp makeover series, we’re going to take a plain and simple lamp that we found at a garage sale this past weekend and make it better. Follow along as we show you what we added and how we changed the lamp cord to revolutionize the original design!

Before

geometric black lamp base
This lamp had a few things going for it when we first found it. For one, its simple shape left us with limitless possibilities when it came time to give it a lamp makeover. For another, we love the unspoken rule of DIY makeovers that the first step of any revamp is to paint the item white.  A white base color, in this case, allows us to give the lamp a special pop of color, and we knew exactly where to put it!

Planning Stages

At Color Cord Company, we love showcasing our fabric-covered lamp wire, which comes in every color of the rainbow. While we had easy access to the cord, we still had to reroute it from its original path hidden within the base of the lamp and follow it down the center of the lamp base.

We merely drilled a hole in the center of the bottom of the base of the lamp, and deepened the existing light cord channel to meet the new hole we drilled. We were able to utilize majority of the existing lamp pieces, only needing to purchase a two-prong plug and the internal socket component from our local hardware store.

Supplies

tools for a lamp makeover
Here’s what we used to make this lamp makeover happen!
  1. Wire Stripper
  2. Screwdriver
  3. Neon Yellow Paracord
  4. White Lacquer Paint
  5. 3/8 drill bit
  6. 2-conductor plug
  7. 10’ Black and White ZigZag Cord
  8. Drill

How-To

We decided that we were going to use our Black and White ZigZag fabric-covered light cord to provide some visual interest to our lamp while letting our neon yellow accent color take center stage. While out and about gathering our DIY supplies, we picked up a pair of $1 kid’s toys and thought that they were the something extra this lamp makeover needed. We weren’t sure whether or not to go with Godzilla or the elephant, so we figured we would let them battle it out once they got their new neon paint job.

Elephant vs. Godzilla

 

yellow elephant and godzilla figures

After a gruesome battle of epic proportions, and a shocking twist, the elephant beat out Godzilla. His prize? A hole drilled through his body and to be displayed proudly in the center of our incredible lamp. After having the cord run through the lamp base and the belly of the elephant, it was time to wire it.

We also decided to experiment with pull chain socket innards so we could swap out the chain with a neon yellow paracord for another pop of our accent color. Our socket and plug were both 2-conductor, but our ZigZag cord is 3-conductor, so we simply clipped the ground wire and left it unused while wiring the lamp.

How to Change a Lamp Cord

Changing the cord for this lamp makeover was pretty easy. We simply swapped out the internal socket components where the bulb connects, attached it to our new cord, threaded the cord through the lamp body, base, and elephant, and installed the two-prong plug to ensure compatibility with nearly any socket.

After

 

upcycled lamp with elephant
Our elephant lamp now has this contemporary and worldly flair that we felt looked great with the World Effect’s Perahu reclaimed boat teak accent table. We love the way our lamp makeover turned out and hope you do too! Share your lighting makeovers with us, and stay tuned for the next lighting makeover on our blog!
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