DIY WALL SCONCES

Make your own metal wall sconces.

Tools and materials

• Grinder
• Welder
• Hammer and/or pry bar
• Metal band saw or cold cut saw or cut off wheel to cut your steel to length. Combination square
• Narrow pneumatic staple gun
• Air compressor
• Table saw
• Mitre saw
• Router
• Ogee router bit
• Flat steel stock (25mm, and 12,5mm, mild steel)
• Scrap plywood (for your jig and the bottoms of the sconces)
• Jig blocks (scrap pieces of plywood, cut to about 25mm x 75mm).
• Scrap poplar or oak (finial bases)
• Wooden finial
• Woodball
• 1 1/4 narrow crown staples
• Hinge
• Screws

These steel sconces were built for a theatrical production, but since the end of the play I have installed them at my house. We were working with a modest budget and we had originally planned to use sconces from our inventory, until we realised they were falling apart. We had to build something to replace them, and do it for very little money.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: The first thing you need to do is cut your flat stock to length. Use your 25mm flat stock for the top and bottom horizontals. The top horizontal piece will be 200mm at its longest point. The bottom horizontal will be 150mm at the longest point. Use your 12.5mm flat stock for your verticals - cut these to 200mm long.

You will see that since the shape of each sconce face is trapezoidal; you will need to cut an angle in your top and bottom horizontals. I did this with a metal band saw, but you can also use a cut-off wheel. I decided not to bother with the corresponding angle on the vertical pieces of 12,5mm flat stock, because the angle is so shallow that the gaps can be filled in with weld, so I just cut them at 90 degrees to save time.