Steampunk Lava Floor Lamp
Click the image above for a brief YouTube video of the Steampunk Lava Floor Lamp in action.
I've had a Lava Lamp since 2011. Lava Lamps are cool! In 2025 I happened across a random Internet picture of a chandelier made from Lava Lamps. I don't have the ceiling height for that. But I was inspired to build the Lava Lamp floor lamp shown here.
For this project I bought three new 14.5" Lava Lamps. At a glance, the new Lava Lamps looked and functioned the same as my old pink Lava Lamp. But the design had been modified (cheapened?). All the dimensions were ever-so-slightly different. The base metal was noticeably thinner. And the bottom of the bottles was shaped different. I really liked the new yellow Lava Lamp. Unfortunately, it was only available with the "record grove" base, which seemed dumb. Fortunately, the dimensions were close enough that I could swap the record grove base with my old silver base.
Old pink Lava Lamp (left) with three new.
The bottom of the new bottles was pinched in and the diameter of the coil hoops was smaller.
Old versus new.
Each Lava Lamp is supported on a 3⁄4" pipe column with a floor flange at each end. The columns are 42", 48" and 54" tall.
I used one of the floor flanges as a template to drill four mounting holes through the bottom of each Lava Lamp base. After the columns were assembled and painted, the Lava Lamp bases were attached with short sheet metal screws. Note that I kept the screws away from the power cord.
Lava Lamp base mounting.
The main base of the floor lamp is about 14" square and made from 3⁄4" plywood. I was trying to make it look like some sort of electrical junction box. The strip wood and screw heads around the perimeter are just decorative. To do it again I might skip the strip wood, round all the corners and try to make it look more like a casting.
I layered the box with several alternating coats of Rust-Oleum semi-gloss black and textured aged iron. I wanted the floor lamp to have a aged steampunk look. I tried some washes and dry-brushing with a lighter rust color. But I had little patience for that and even less artistic talent. Up close the box still looks like wood. But from a distance in a dimly lit gameroom, it blends with the texture of the pipe components and looks okay, I guess.
Floor lamp base.
My columns were not as plumb and parallel as I wanted because of imperfections in the various pipe fittings. So, I braced the columns together by welding in scraps of rebar. Boy, do I suck at welding. But, again, the textured paint helped blend it together.
Rebar bracing.
The floor lamp's ON/OFF switch is mounted to its own 1⁄2" x 36" pipe column with another floor flange on the bottom and a reducing bushing on top.
Shown below is the rotary switch I used. It operates in a clockwise ON-OFF-ON-OFF manner. The switch was readily available and appeared to be a de facto choice for steampunk lamp projects. The switch can thread into a 1⁄8" pipe fitting and is often disguised with water valve parts. In practice, my rotary switch is always left ON. The floor lamp is plugged into a switched wall outlet and simply turns ON with the rest of the room lighting.
Rotary switch.
Instead of water valve parts, I bought a craft store wood wheel of the sort used for toy trucks. I counter-bored the underside of the wheel to match the diameter of the switch knob and epoxied the parts together. The topside screw head is a decorative cutoff and stuck on with more epoxy.
Wood wheel valve handle.
For each Lava Lamp, I cut away the in-line switch and extended the power cord. Each cord was fished through a rear-facing hole the pipe columns. All the connections were made inside the floor lamp's base. I used a three-conductor main power cord and ran a ground wire to each pipe column. Lastly, I added nail-in felt feet.
Lamp cords run through the pipe columns.
Cord connections.
With all that pipe, the finished lamp weighed in at 33 pounds. That's good because the lamp's center of gravity ended up being way lower than I imagined. My initial idea was to have arms branching out from one central column. I think that would have been top-heavy. Nevertheless, I wouldn't recommend this project for anyone with rambunctious kids or pets.