Crossed Lamps

Last weekend we bought two Rodd lamps at Ikea for the guest room, and it struck me how amused I'd be if each one switched the other. Six hours and a few new parts later, and it came out pretty well:

The remote action is especially jarring because the switches are right next to the bulbs they would normally control:

Ikea Rodd lamp head

I really lucked out with those lamps. The switches aren't integral to the bulb sockets as is often the case, and they're not even soldered. I was able to fit two extra wires through the lamp's main tube without going to a wire gauge that felt scarily thin -- LED bulbs helped there.

Kate felt the whole thing would just annoy people so I built a hidden control box under the bed:

Crossed Lamps Control Box

With that in place we can disable the effect, or have both lamps controlled by one side's switch, which is almost arguably useful.