More than a year ago I came across a designer lego lamp. I really liked the idea but the price tag was a little hefty. Back then the lamp cost $800 and now it is at $995. But to be honest there is no designer product like this lego lamp that really says “do it yourself” like that!
So I built one myself. I designed the basic form with Lego Digital Designer. The plan can be found here [1]. The base of the lamp uses about 800 pieces. The final build varies from the my first plan, especially in the base where I first planned to hide the foot of the old Ikea lamp. I finally just used the lamps main rod and electrical wire. The arrangement of the bricks varies to give the lamp more structural integrity and was improvised.
The parts were ordered from three different shops on BrickLink. They offered the green I wanted for the lamp at a fraction of the price of the original Lego™ store. The total price for all parts was about 60€. The lamp I had laying around was ‘free’ and the new lamp shade was about 30€. Total of about 100€ – well below the price point of the original.
I was asked by the designer Sean Kenney, to remove the LDD plans for the lamp. He argued that the plans would hinder his ability to sell these lamps online.
Although I do not agree with Sean’s argument, that his sales might be influenced by a simple Lego™ scetch for a similar lamp, I’ve respect for the work that went into the lamps Sean designed and did take the plans down for now.