Adventures in DIY I: The Blue Light Project

One of the reasons I chose my house in Edmonton was the design. It was a loft style, with vaulted ceilings and lots of open wall space. Modern and minimal, just how I liked it.

And like it I did, except something eventually dawned on me: there was a bit too much open wall space. The tallest wall in the living room was 2 stories high, and the staircase flanking the room also had a high wall. It was a whole lot of white.

Problem was, with walls that high you can't just hang a few pictures and be done with it. I would have to find prints the size of gym banners. Even if such things existed they would dominate the room, and I couldn't think of any giant pictures I'd like to have take over the space. I considered regular wall art, like a scroll or some metalwork, but I couldn't find anything I liked that would fill the space. So I was stumped.

Inspiration struck during a late-morning brunch at Moxie's.

On the wall behind the bar there was a series of large squares lit up from within with blue light. The best way I can describe them is they looked like box frames about 3' X 3' with a frosted glass front and a diffuse blue light inside. By the last bite of my eggs Benedict I could see it clearly: a sleek, monochromatic lighting design on the wall. Clean lines to go with the minimalist look. Oh, it was gonna be good.

Blue Lamp Project Final

The Quest Begins

A quick survey of the wall and stairway told me I had my work cut out for me. I needed a light source that would be big enough to illuminate a large box frame, but a standard light source would protrude to a point that the frame would have to stick out a long way from the wall. Squeezing up the stairs past a staggered row of sharp frame corners didn't sound like a fun time.

I also didn't want the power cables to be visible or to pose a tripping hazard on the stairs, especially for a klutz like me. Luckily, the wall backed onto a closet in a bedroom, so the answer was obvious: the power source would be routed through the closet. A friend pointed out that drilling a bunch of holes in the closet might not be the best idea, but when faced with the option of having cables snaking all over the place--and thus ruining the clean lines of the project--the friend came to her senses and realized that aesthetics are much more important than not damaging a house.

There were other issues I had to consider:

1. The lights needed to be low profile so they wouldn't bother me, especially if I was carrying something up or down the stairs.
2. The lights couldn't produce too much heat -- no fire hazards allowed!
3. The lights had to be blue in color.
4. The lights had to provide just the right amount of illumination--not enough to interfere with watching TV in the evening, and not so little that they wouldn't be noticed - after all, they would be a work of art. ;-)

Profile

After thinking about building box frames from scratch and all the hullabaloo that goes with that, I decided to investigate picture frames. IKEA had ones that looked promising. They were approximately the right dimensions (50cm square and 3cm deep). A few quick measurements later, I was the proud owner of 3 of them. The big question was, "Can I find lights that will fit inside?"

Lighting

You would think a simple question would have a simple answer. You'd be wrong. It took quite a few different tries to get something that worked.

Originally, I was thinking about fluorescent lights. In theory, I could get thin, 30cm lights that were about 10-15 watts. Sounded good. Except obtaining everything I would need to get these small lights to work would require the patience of Job or an inside connection at some obscure industrial contractor warehouse in Russia.

The starters, although available, are hard to find and not very easy to buy for the home project guy, like me. Nor are the fixture connectors for the lights easily found ... in fact, I have yet to find anything other than the standard ones for 4 foot lights. (This is really disappointing, by the way. I would love to be able to use small compact fluorescent lights without having to have a screw in base. Now that I think of it, the stupidity of selling 30cm bulbs without optional mounting parts is mind-boggling! I can easily think of dozens of places I would build fixtures using these lights, but what's the point of trying when the parts I need aren't easily available? Rant over.)

So, fluorescent lights were a no-go. In hindsight, the unavailability issue was only part of the problem. I think the heat they produce would have been excessive for the small space in the frames, which would have required ventilation holes at the least, and I didn't want to drill holes in the frame or cover. Chew on that, fluorescent bulb suppliers.

Color

I took a break from the lighting dilemma by focusing on the color issue. I was determined to have blue light. Whatever light source I ended up with probably wouldn't come in blue, so the cover of the box frame would have to provide the color. I went to a local plastic shop to find out what they could provide. They had some opaque plastic sheets that were a fairly dark blue, and I got those cut for each box frame.

Lighting Revisited

After mulling over lighting options I figured I could use bright LEDs. For testing purposes, I would have to buy around 20. I was estimating that I'd need around 50000-60000 mcd illumination. I went to the local electronics store and they didn't have enough of them, but the guy behind the counter had a great suggestion: check out a Dollar store and scavenge them from cheap flashlights.

On my way to pick up some flashlights, I passed by a computer store. I thought about the lighting in all those lovely, tricked out computer boxes that were so popular. Hey, I thought; it might work.

I poked around in the store and found 2 possible light sources:

1. Illuminating wire.
2. Cold cathode tubes.

I bought one of each for an experiment and figured the loser would end up in my computer. At home, I tried out the wire to see how it looked behind my new blue plastic. It just didn't have the punch to shine through. But the cold cathode lights were perfect--25000-30000 mcd (or 20-30 cd) was bang on!

Heat

I left the lights on for a while in the box frames and they stayed modestly cool, with no signs of warming up over time. Special ventilation wasn't needed! Yay! The spaces in the joints of the frames would be enough. Now I had to figure out how to power the lights.

Power

Since the lights operated at 12 volts and used only a few mA, I could use a simple transformer. I found one that could provide up to 600mA and tried it out. Perfect. I could power all 5 tubes. The lights came with the usual computer connectors, so it would be easy to ensure good connections and all that.

Testing

I assembled the lights into 4 configurations to see how I could mimic the diffused effect I had seen at Moxie's.

1. Single light.
2. Double light - semi centered.
3. Double light - spread apart.
4. 2 and 3 with reflective foil secured to the back of the frame.

Without the foil, the light was dim, weak, and reminded me of an X-ray machine. Not exactly what I want to see in my home, and not even close to the diffused effect I saw in Moxie's. With the foil, the light seemed twice as bright but diffused, albeit in some weird patterns.

With the single light I didn't bother to secure the foil, I just leaned it against the frame. It had a nice effect--kind of a hazy pattern of light--and I could see trying to create interesting works of art using this technique. The problem was that one slight bump and the foil would shift, meaning what was once a cool pattern now could end up looking like a light bulb behind a dirty screen.

I could see right away that using double lights with foil was going to be time consuming, there were a couple of obvious problems. First, the amount of wire that came with the light tubes was just barely enough to make it out of the frame, never mind having enough slack to easily connect with the power source. Second, the modulators that came with the tubes were too big to house inside the frame because they created a big black shadow.

Good thing I love taking things apart. I disassembled the modulators and glued them to the inside of the back of the frame. I knew those pesky wires would be no match after I split them apart, so split them I did. A few dollops of glue later, everything was ready to go.

Finale

At last, I drilled holes in the wall and hung the frames. Attached the power supply in parallel, turned on the switches, and voila!

A successful project!