I love finding things at flea markets and local stores that are no longer of use day to day and turning them into something that functions a different way in my home. It's almost a game to me, seeing something that is really interesting to look at and trying to figure out what I can make it into as a functional piece. I guess my house is full of altered oddities or conversational pieces and this is no different. I found this hair dryer for quite a good price at a local Philadelphia store, Jinxed, and couldn't pass it up. I honestly had been keeping an eye out for an older salon hair dryer to turn into a lamp for a long time but none of them were at a good price for me to want one terribly.
This lamp actually still worked and I didn't want to mess with that integrity, otherwise I would have utilized the current wires and switches on the the lamp. Instead I decided to buy some lamp wire and a very cheap socket, one that you would have in a cellar. I used an older plug that I had taken off another appliance, when you like to tinker and fix things you're always saving pieces off of other projects you find.
This lamp actually still worked and I didn't want to mess with that integrity, otherwise I would have utilized the current wires and switches on the the lamp. Instead I decided to buy some lamp wire and a very cheap socket, one that you would have in a cellar. I used an older plug that I had taken off another appliance, when you like to tinker and fix things you're always saving pieces off of other projects you find.
All older appliances are relatively simple to take apart, this hair dryer had one screw holding the 'empress' collar on, under that there were six small screws holding the hood together. It was really dirty when I opened, you can imagine, it took much longer vacuuming out the filth than any other part of the project. |
It was time to wire it up! Wiring a light is a lot simpler than most people realize. There are only two wires and two places they could go. You need to attach one wire to each screw (one is usually brass color, the other silver) it doesn't matter which wire you attach to what, just that you attach each wire to separate a screw.
Thread the wire through your plug and repeat.
Now it's time to test your work, make sure you place covers over exposed wires (like the above) and that you're not touching any bare wires and the wires are not touching anything else that is metal.
Unplug everything and attach the light fixture to the fan and replace all the pieces and you're done.