Scaling up a lamp?

DGersic · Apr 4, 2026

I have a table lamp that I like. I want a floor lamp, and have been thinking that I’d like the floor lamp to match, or at least be similar to, the table lamp. Mission style furniture is what we’ve done the family room with.

The table lamp:

I would kinda like this to be just bigger, around 60” tall (actual size TBD still). Scaling up the individual elements of the lamp may be too much, so I’m wondering if anyone has tried to do something like scaling up a lamp or similar thing without destroying the proportions.

Looking at what’s available, I found a couple that I like, may borrow some ideas from.

This Stickley is nice.

The repeating horizontal pieces look better to me than just going up with the four outside corner pieces. I don’t like the metal rod up the middle for the cord, but I’m also not sure that I can rifle drill a 5’ hole in a square post. I do like the way that my table lamp hides the cord.

These two Tiffany lamps

One has the horizontal piece, the other doesn’t. I think I like it better with. The second one has beefier vertical corner posts, those look a bit too heavy to me. The top detail with the stained glass inserts is kinda cool.

Finally, a pair from a guy on LumberJocks

I like his extra details on the horizontal pieces. His vertical corner posts look well proportioned to me, too,

I may have to build this first out of pine, to figure out the sizes and proportions.

cvairwerks · Apr 4, 2026

Rip material for a single post and use a router to create a channel. Glue back together and finish to size. No gun drilling required.

PCustoms · Apr 5, 2026

cvairwerks said:
Rip material for a single post and use a router to create a channel. Glue back together and finish to size. No gun drilling required.

Was going to post this.

You can also kerf/router a groove dead center in the strip, then glue in a filler part way. Do this on the inside and you'll never see the glue joint.

Used to have a friend that was really good at Mission style furniture. Which I had more pieces/pictures of his work.

DGersic · Apr 7, 2026

I have done the cut, channel, and glue thing before. I can always see the glue joint after. I may waste some wood seeing if I can actually gun drill it, just to see if I can.

Anyway, that’s a side show. I’m mostly trying to see if there is any advice on making it look “right”. The proportions of something being made from something smaller.

The four vertical posts at the corners, if I extend them from a 2’ table lamp to a 6’ floor lamp, keeping them at 3/4” square I think they’ll look too spindly. The Stickley and the first Tiffany, to me, look like those pieces are too small. So maybe a 1” square cross section would work better. So as not to crowd them, the spacing between the posts will have to increased. A floor lamp needs a larger base than a table lamp.

The second Tiffany has a larger cross section, but looks a little bit too large. The LumberJocks lamps look well proportioned, like he really nailed the size of those posts.

Of course, this is all subjective. What I like, you may disagree with.

We’re deep cleaning the house here, so I have lots of thinking time to ponder these things.

cvairwerks · Apr 7, 2026

I'd run the size ratios from the 2 footer and muliply by 3 and see how the proportions look, and use that as a starting point. Scaling up by a factor of 3 on the height may not need exactly the same scale factor for every dimension.

The Cobbler · Apr 7, 2026

I would keep the dimensions of the spindles , base & top relatively the same ( not much thicker if any at all)
Add to the height of the spindles ( maybe X 2.5 or 3) & perhaps double the width of the base and top section. the bevel pcs perhaps 50% wider.
I would run some scraps quickly to test the look before committing to expensive wood

LeonardY · Apr 9, 2026

There is a technique using a miter locking bit to make a square post. I've done it a number of times.
I snagged this picture off the internet. I can't find pictures of when I did it.
If you use a single board, you can get the grain to wrap around seamlessly. It's the way you get quartersawn on all four surfaces.

The bonus is it leaves a hollow in the center.

DGersic · Apr 9, 2026

LeonardY said:
There is a technique using a miter locking bit to make a square post. I've done it a number of times.
I snagged this picture off the internet. I can't find pictures of when I did it.
If you use a single board, you can get the grain to wrap around seamlessly. It's the way you get quartersawn on all four surfaces.

The bonus is it leaves a hollow in the center.

Now there’s a tool I didn’t know about.

That’s an interesting idea that would get me what I want, maybe.

The Cobbler · Apr 9, 2026

It's called a 45° lock miter joint router bit

RTM · Apr 9, 2026

The Cobbler said:
It's called a 45° lock miter joint router bit

Once you get them dialed, they are fantastic.

Another technique w a similar result was used to make a front leg for a desk I disassembled. They offset the 45 so the seem was not on the corners, where the are more likely to splinter. Make the the top and bottom 1/4” narrower, and then leave a flat at the top and bottom of the vertical pieces. From post #7

Scaling up a lamp?

I have a table lamp that I like. I want a floor lamp, and have been thinking that I’d like the floor lamp to match, or at least be similar to, the table lamp. Mission style furniture is what we’ve done the family room with. The table lamp: I would kinda like this to be just bigger, around...

www.garagejournal.com

Will see if I still have the leg in the woodpile.

manwithtools · Apr 10, 2026

DGersic said:
Now there’s a tool I didn’t know about.

That’s an interesting idea that would get me what I want, maybe.

Be aware there are different size Lock Miter bits for different thicknesses of wood. Also, they are quite tedious to setup and should only be used in a router table. Once you have it perfectly setup, save a couple of pieces of the profiled stock to use as gauges to speed up the setup next time. The router table needs a good sturdy fence.

DGersic · Apr 10, 2026

manwithtools said:
Be aware there are different size Lock Miter bits for different thicknesses of wood. Also, they are quite tedious to setup and should only be used in a router table. Once you have it perfectly setup, save a couple of pieces of the profiled stock to use as gauges to speed up the setup next time. The router table needs a good sturdy fence.

I built a router table to make some cabinet doors and drawer faces last year. I did see different sizes of this lock bit, and it does look like a PITA to set up. Given the stock size needed to construct my post, I’ll need a small bit to do it.

To get a 1” square post, with a usable hollow centre, I’m in the 1/4” to maybe 3/8” stock thickness range. And a 1” post may be too big, I may want to go smaller.

Even if not using this lock mitre bit, possibly just a four sided glue up would work to hide the joints. I don’t like splitting the post and being able to see the joint. And knowing that it’s there, I will always see the joint. I don’t need a ton of strength here, it’s a lamp. So four 1/4” thick pieces, some 45* cuts, and some glue would probably work ok for strength.

PCustoms · Apr 10, 2026

DGersic said:
And a 1” post may be too big, I may want to go smaller.

I'd get some cheap wood and start playing around.

Mocking this up on pine is a lot cheaper then hating the proportions in oak...

Higgins · Apr 10, 2026

LeonardY said:
There is a technique using a miter locking bit to make a square post. I've done it a number of times.
I snagged this picture off the internet. I can't find pictures of when I did it.
If you use a single board, you can get the grain to wrap around seamlessly. It's the way you get quartersawn on all four surfaces.

The bonus is it leaves a hollow in the center.

WoW
Now that is talent i haven't seen in years....

DGersic · Apr 10, 2026

The Cobbler said:
I would keep the dimensions of the spindles , base & top relatively the same ( not much thicker if any at all)
Add to the height of the spindles ( maybe X 2.5 or 3) & perhaps double the width of the base and top section. the bevel pcs perhaps 50% wider.
I would run some scraps quickly to test the look before committing to expensive wood

The table lamp, posts are 3/4” square. I think I want to go up to about 1” square for a taller floor lamp. Increased base and top sizes, but not sure how much bigger to go.

I was pricing available wood yesterday (Menards). There is not much difference between their clear pine and their red oak. For the posts, just to mock up in good pine, I can start with four 2x2 at $11 each. Or I can get a 5/4x6x8 in red oak for $45. With the 5/4 board being a 1” actual thickness, that board is four cuts from being 1” square posts, with enough left over to make the horizontal pieces, probably the top, and maybe even some of the base.

I have some leftover 2x3 studs. I think they’re going to get a trip through the table saw to make some cheap / free mock up posts. Won’t be anything near perfect, just enough to be able to see what that would look like. I have some other random scraps of 1x pine boards I can mock up most of the pieces with.

PCustoms · Apr 10, 2026

DGersic said:
I have some leftover 2x3 studs. I think they’re going to get a trip through the table saw to make some cheap / free mock up posts. Won’t be anything near perfect, just enough to be able to see what that would look like. I have some other random scraps of 1x pine boards I can mock up most of the pieces with.

I was going to suggest that, good way to play around

manwithtools · Apr 10, 2026

DGersic said:
I built a router table to make some cabinet doors and drawer faces last year. I did see different sizes of this lock bit, and it does look like a PITA to set up. Given the stock size needed to construct my post, I’ll need a small bit to do it.

To get a 1” square post, with a usable hollow centre, I’m in the 1/4” to maybe 3/8” stock thickness range. And a 1” post may be too big, I may want to go smaller.

Even if not using this lock mitre bit, possibly just a four sided glue up would work to hide the joints. I don’t like splitting the post and being able to see the joint. And knowing that it’s there, I will always see the joint. I don’t need a ton of strength here, it’s a lamp. So four 1/4” thick pieces, some 45* cuts, and some glue would probably work ok for strength.

I don't think you will find a lock miter bit that will work with anything less than 3/8" thick material. While a plain 45 degree joint will likely have sufficient strength, it's going to a bit of a pain accurately gluing up 4 - 1/4" x 1" X 60" pieces. I'd make some test fitups of the long pieces, packing tape could be your friend...

PCustoms · Apr 10, 2026

All this fancy joinery to make a groove in 1" square stock is overkill IMHO

DGersic · Apr 10, 2026

PCustoms said:
All this fancy joinery to make a groove in 1" square stock is overkill IMHO

We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought that they would be easy.

Shiftless · Apr 11, 2026

Speaking of not easy, if I was going to build a floor lamp from scratch out of wood, this design that I saw in the Frank Lloyd Wright building called Taliesin would be near the top of my list. I think cherry wood would be the best.

larry_g · Apr 11, 2026

DGersic said:
Finally, a pair from a guy on LumberJocks

I like his extra details on the horizontal pieces. His vertical corner posts look well proportioned to me, too,

I may have to build this first out of pine, to figure out the sizes and proportions.

As for gun drilling. Since the above pictured lamp has the horizontal braces that surround verticals could you splice the vertical and hide the splice in the horizontal there fore you have 2 shorter pieces to gun drill?

lg

DGersic · Apr 11, 2026

larry_g said:
As for gun drilling. Since the above pictured lamp has the horizontal braces that surround verticals could you splice the vertical and hide the splice in the horizontal there fore you have 2 shorter pieces to gun drill?

lg

Yes, I came to that same idea. If my posts are interrupted by the horizontals, I can make shorter ones that would be easier to drill, or to replace if the drill goes off course and destroys a piece.

Scaling up a lamp?

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