It's Hard to Believe What It Started As
The finished light is a long way from the piece of PVC pipe that started the project. What began as an ordinary hardware-store material was cut, sanded, surrounded with wood, painted and fitted with LED lights. The flexible liner helped complete the glowing exterior, while the wooden base turned the pipe into a freestanding piece.
The result is a decorative light that can brighten a corner of a room and change colors depending on the mood. And perhaps the most interesting part isn't the finished lamp itself. It's realizing how little was required to get there. There was no need for a complicated custom housing or an expensive designer fixture. The basic structure came from materials that are readily available at a hardware store, along with some scrap wood and battery-powered lights.
That's what makes projects like this so appealing. Once you stop looking at materials only for their intended purpose, their possibilities become much wider. A PVC pipe doesn't have to remain a pipe. With the right idea, it can become a piece of furniture, a light fixture or even an outdoor decoration. And judging by the finished result, you might never guess what was hiding underneath that black paint.