I receive daily questions about our large wooden lamps.  You have probably seen several pictures of them here and on social media.  They were in the House on Winchester, the rental, and the cottage for awhile.  And now they are here at the house.  But, I realized that I have never shared the story behind our large wooden lamps.  And they have a good one. 

I started this little series here a long time ago and have several posts written about other things in our home.  Check them out here if you are interested. I have shared the fun stories behind our antique hutch, our yellow ware bowl collection, our massive white cabinet, and so many more. You can see what they looked like in the old house and the rental, if you want… but I don’t think I have any photos of them in the cottage. They were there for a short while.  So, let’s get to the story behind them.

The Story Behind Our Large Wooden Lamps

Deb and I owned a storefront several years ago.  We sold painted furniture and home decor.  We ordered some of the home decor in from other companies but a lot of our items were pieces that were repurposed.  A lot of our things were found from trash piles, dumpsters, garage sales, you name it.  We happened upon this huge garage sale that was some type of fund raiser.  So they had a lot of unusual donated items.  

I found this picture of an antique pool table online.

We saw these strange wooden pieces in a heaping pile and had no clue what they were.  I asked the guy running the place and he was told they were the ends and legs of an antique pool table.  They had the most gorgeous patina.  I asked the price and he said he would sell the pile to me for $4. Yes.. that is 4 one dollar bills.

There were obviously 4 legs in that pile and a few side pieces. I knew that we could figure out something really cool to make with them.  So they came to the shop with us.  I suggested making a nightlight out of one of them.  Deb did and it sold immediately.  The other three pool table legs stayed in our stash for future projects.

Fast forward….

We ended up selling our storefront and still had three of those legs.  I will never forget.  Deb looked at me during that move and said, “I’m burning these pool table legs.”  I said, “Oh no you are not…. I want you to make me lamps from them when things calm down.”  A few years later, things calmed down and that is what she did.

Since we had three legs, she made two matching ones and one that is a little taller.  She made the base of the taller one from the side pieces.  I currently have this one setting on an old column.

Another Fun Story about a Pool Table Find

We were smack dab in the middle of our move from the House on Winchester to the rental we lived in for 1 1/2 years.  An antique pool table popped up on the Marketplace 2 blocks away from the old house.   This one didn’t have the same gorgeous patina, but it had the same shaped four legs and the two side pieces.  I believe the entire pile was $100.  Of course, we didn’t pass that up.

They went to storage but I loved the way the side pieces looked.  So we ended up hanging them over the doorway in the rental.  And now they are here above the windows in the family room.  They add a lot of warmth and interest to this space.

For those asking what Deb used for this project….

She started by drilling a hole through the middle of the lamp with a long drill bit, like this one.  And then she bought lamp parts at the hardware store and put it together.  It really was fairly easy.  I will be sharing more of this type of project when she does it the next time.  Because I have a few more columns in storage that I want her to make lamps from.

I absolutely love how they turned out and love the texture they bring.  They are very unusual which I think fits our space well.