The idea for this project was born during our vacation in Hawaii. We went for a hike (Manoa Falls, Oahu) and at the end of course we checked out the gift shop 🙂 There were interesting designs of lamps on the display, and for some reason they got stuck in my mind.

Wanting to make an original Christmas gift for my wife, I decided to design something similar, yet more personalized.

I started with a basic design (fully cut out windows on the sides), and then moved to final shapes. I also created one for myself (on which I first tried out the finishing process [staining, sanding] to avoid disappointing mistakes with the main design).

Design was made in Fusion 360 – fully parametric model, which allowed for quick fine-tuning, for a tight fit of different pieces. It also allows for changing the overall dimensions of the lamp freely, to accommodate various designs (i.e. landscape orientation of the graphics on side panels, if desired).

Cut out on laser cutter from 5mm plywood (underlayment), easily available in Home Depot.

Turned out to be a very well received gift… 🙂

 

Design (parametric model made in Fusion 360):

 

 

Cutting the pieces, initial assembly and fitting:

 

 

Cutting the final designs:

 

Staining, sanding and finishing (polyurethane):

 

End result: