IKEA PS 2014 Death Star Lamp

This project was floating around the internet for a while and I was always faszinated by the Death Star idea.

With my boyfriend moving in and the new space caused by a larger flat, the possibility was there and I took it ;)

Since I haven't found an Instructable of this project here, I thought I will give it a try for my first time.

So enjoy and I'm open for any kind of input to make things better or improve my writing.

I'm participating in the "SCI-FI" contest here on Instructables. If you like this Instructable and feel like it's a worthy winner, it would be great if you'd give me a vote. Thank you very much.

First step ist of course - buy an IKEA PS 2014 lamp.

We decided to get the biggest one in copper/white.It is supposed to hang over the bed in our slightly Star Wars themed bedroom, so why get small ;)

I used a can of light grey spray paint from the local hardware store.Do this outside because of the fumes and the necessary ventilation.If you want to have it perfect - cover the copper insides BEFORE you spraypaint the outsides. The mist of the spray dulled the sheen a tiny bit - it doesn't bother us, but if you want it super shiny - cover it up. Or don't use spray paint and brush the light grey instead. In my case it was a matter of time and not wanting to paint them all by hand.You'll end up with an light grey ball after assembling it like the instruction tells you.

We used masking tape for painting walls to cover the areas that should stay lighter. Using an x-acto knive and a cuting matt with a ruler prooved to be helpfull to have a variation in the strips. Cut some wide, some small, some long, some short. Alternate to create the pattern, the death star wasn't all the same, neither should be yours.

We created a stencil of the round weapon on a piece of paper first and traced that onto the Lamp with a pencil.

I'm adding the scanned template of the laser in 3 versions. We did it by hand so it was a bit hard to scan that, but maybe somebody can use this as a template. It fits on a sheet of A4 paper and is meant for the 52 cm diameter version - for the smaller ones you'll need to size it down a bit.

This step took a good bit of patience but it's worth to take your time and go wild on details.

Link to downloadable version

Once you're satisfied with the look of your pattern, you can paint a darker shade of paint over the whole ball.

We decided that black was to dark and sharp as a contrast, so we mixed a darker grey colour. The paint is a mix of acrylic paint and a chalk paint, to give it a not so glossy finish. We found this paint in the hardware store.

Paint the ball completely or work in segments - it all depends on your taste. We peeled the masking tape not long after painting. Make sure to press the tape very well down before you paint, avoiding blotches and noses doing so. But even if you have some slight uneven lines - the end result will be great, because the Death star has so many little bits and dots, it will look like you wanted it this way ;)

The round weapon was painted by hand with a fine brush.

hang it on your ceiling as instructed - you will need a hook for that - and enjoy your Death Star lamp - it's awsome!