FRÄCK Hack Copycat

Look what I made all by my little self!!

Awesome right?  Micah hasn’t had a bedside lamp in over 6 months.  We moved the cute wooden lamps that were in our room to the guest room.  They were great but didn’t really match the what we had going on in our master bedroom.  Micah does most of his reading on the ipad, so I slacked on getting a lamp put in. Then this beauty came into my life and I knew I had to have it.

I’d like to tell you this is an original idea but it so is not.  I “borrowed” it from Manhattan Nest.  I knew it was exactly what we needed when I saw it.  Fairly cheap, really chic and “easy” to put together.  It was SO easy to put together that I’m not going to bother giving you step by step instructions.  He does a good job of the basics and I used this tutorial to figure out how to wire a lamp.  It only took me 10 minutes to wire each lamp.

Easy right?  Well, once you get all the parts it’s easy.  It getting all the parts that is hard.  So, instead of telling you how to make this, I’m going to tell you where I got everything which may only be useful to people living in Seattle. 

A – Chrome tipped light bulb.  I thought this would be the hardest thing to locate but it in the end it wasn’t.  I found these online everywhere but it turned out that it would cost $15 to ship a $3 light bulb.  Awesome.  Even if I bought 4 bulbs, it would cost more to ship them than I paid for them.  After a few calls, I was able to locate my light bulb at the Seattle Lighting Warehouse.  I went to the retail stores and they told me it would take 2 weeks to arrive in the store but if I drove the 1.5 miles to the warehouse, I could pick it up that day.  I know, it makes no sense.  I wanted the globe shaped bulb but they didn’t carry them anymore so I went with A-shaped in a 60 watt.  It cost $3.50 a bulb but they put out over 1000 hours of light.

B – Lamp socket with cord hole on the side in chrome.  I tried a few places locally (Target, Lowes, Home Depot) and I could only find this in either brass or in chrome but with the hole coming out the bottom.  You NEED the hole to be on the side.  After few attempts at locating this I went to Ebay.  Yes, Ebay.  I found this guy who sells lamps parts, told him exactly what I was after and he set up an individualized sale from me.  I paid $6.15 for three lamp sockets including shipping. 

C – Adapter Nut.  THIS was the hardest thing to find.  I went to 3 different places and came up empty-handed.  My Dad recommended Tacoma Screw and that’s indeed where I found this little part.  The woman was unsure she could help me when I presented her with the base and the lamp socket but she found the piece in the end.  It cost me $0.80 for each nut.

D – The FRÄCK.  Yes, it’s called the FRÄCK.  It’s this:

Yup, it’s a $4.99 mirror from Ikea.  Easy.

E & F – Lamp Wire and plug (not shown).  I went with the place Manhattan Nest suggested which was Sundial Wire.  It cost $1.40 a foot and went with 5 ft per lamp.  The plug was there and I liked the interesting style which had a touch of yellow so I bought those from Sundial for $2 each.  Shipping was $3 for everything and I bought enough for 3 lamps.

Total per lamp (including tax and shipping) $21.35 per lamp.  I could have shaved a few bucks off by buying a cheaper plug and lamp socket elsewhere but it wasn’t worth my time to hunt for 2 hours to save $3.

I loved how it turned out.  It’s perfect for what we needed and wanted. 

We went with a 60w bulb because it’s what I could find.  It looks really bright in the picture but we actually found it to be perfect.  It’s bright enough to really see what you are reading but the chrome tip makes it dim enough that he can sleep when I want to keep reading.

I love this project; I learned how to wire a lamp, I found a new blog (to me), and I always love a good (and cheap) IKEA hack.  Anyone else going to attempt this hack?  It’s easy, really.  Well, once you know where to get everything.