“How to find classic designer desk lamps and convince people to give you them for nothing!?“
Luke Maynard – January 2020
After lending a hand with a local business premises relocation, not my usual job description, but when projects are thin on the ground the bills still need to be payed and apparently my certain set of skills were needed. Who knew….? Anyway after disassembling and reassembling various work benches, storage units, the lifting, shifting and general hard graft, i was finally rewarded with this gem of a find! Previously used by the business, as lighting on an electronics work bench, which was ironic with the history of the designer desk lamp itself, it was a little worse for ware and had definitely seen better days. “What are you going to do with this?” i asked….. “It was gonna tip it, not sure it even works anymore….” He said…. ” After explaining my plans to restore it to its former glory, he was happy to see it go to a new home. It’s amazing what you can find tucked away in old workshops and to think it was probably going to end up in a landfill somewhere! Sacrilege! I couldn’t wait to get it back to my own workshop and start nursing it back to health. Smiles all the way home! 🙂
Back @ iRefurb HQ….
It was now time to take a better look at what i was working with. After closer inspection, although it had a broken plug, out dated wiring and was missing it’s original base, the main functionality of the angle poise and signature counter weighted arm were in full working order. And, although almost illegible, but still there, it even had it’s original Horstmann logo stickers on the screw ends! Next, Also covered in multiple areas of rust and with the original paint flaking off too, it wasn’t visually in the best of condition, but in my honest opinion the ware and tare only added a beautiful patina to the overall look of the lamp. It was now time to decide whether to keep these naturally, beautiful aged marks or give it a whole new colour schemed finish….. Hmm, what to do, what to do….
First of all though, it was time to disassemble the various parts of the lamp. Remove the old cables and generally explore the workings of the design itself. I have made mistakes in this process in the past, especially with refitting new wiring through tight spaces, so slow and steady definitely win the race. I never rush rewiring, because that can lead to a dangerous consequences further down the line!
Next it was time to choose what colour cable to use and nowadays with so many different colours and styles of three core cable available, this is easier said than done. Braided? Twisted? Vintage? Plain old white? In the end, keeping in style with such a classic piece of 1950’s design, i decided to get as close to the original colouring as possible. A one colour, light grey cable was a definite must. Decision made.