Old-Fashioned Radio Lamp

Dimensions: Height, 12.5 inches; Width, 11.5 inches; Depth, 8 inches; Cord is 7.5 feet long; Weight, 4 pounds. This unique little decorative table light doesn’t function as a radio anymore but casts a nice glow through real stained glass that I put in place of the original speaker and control knobs. It would look great on a bookshelf, bureau, fireplace mantle, or side table. You could spend many nice evenings by dimming your regular lights and turning on this lamp to set some atmosphere, while enjoying your favorite video or audio entertainment. Two ideal, period-appropriate radio programs—with vintage music and sketches—to check out would be “Hot Jazz Saturday Night” and “The Big Broadcast,” produced in D.C. by WAMU–88.5FM. $125. Click here to purchase.

The Story

My wife bought this retro radio reproduction from an antique store in Grass Valley, CA. Since it was no longer working, she thought I could make something interesting out of it. A lamp is what came to mind. First, I removed all the guts, saving just the shell. It sat that way for quite a while until I came across a large but broken stained glass art piece in a dumpster a few blocks from my house in the Glover Park neighborhood of D.C. The color scheme seemed right out of the 1970s, so I wasn’t surprised when I noticed the artist’s signature and date (1975) in a little pane at the bottom. I realized quickly that the colors would go well with the brown finish of the retro radio. I custom-cut a piece of clear glass, from an old picture frame, to serve as the backing piece. I traced the outline of the radio’s little openings onto it, then cut pieces of stained glass to cover those spaces and attached them to the backing piece with MAC Multi-Purpose Craft Glue, which dries clear. Because it wasn’t possible to cut a single piece to cover the big clover-shaped opening, I used four pieces and filled the narrow gaps with Wine Red sanded grout, from Grout360, which makes the design look even more like a stained-glass window when the light is shining through. My phone camera doesn’t quite do the colors justice when illuminated, so for the record the four-segment clover is red, the four surrounding triangles are yellow, the two amoeba-like pieces are orange, the central Philco-framed piece is amber, and the four small circles at the bottom are the same yellow and orange as up top. The glass is held in place with ¼-inch offset clips screwed into the back side of the front piece. The molded piece of metal that creates the Philco opening stuck out inside the back of the front piece, so to enable the glass to sit flat I had to grind the metal down about an eighth of an inch using my Dremel 4300. 

I painted the inside of the radio high-gloss white to help reflect light out through the colored openings. A small gap under the front edge of the bottom piece would have let light escape, so I hand cut a piece of ¼-inch square doweling to fit into that space, stained it dark brown and glued it into place. Finally, I installed a light socket and cord using parts purchased from the Lamplighter store in Alexandria, Virginia. The on/off switch that I installed on the cord, close to the body of the radio, is one of two I found for free in front of a neighbor’s house. I’ll include the 60-watt LED lightbulb that I used when taking the pictures. It produces a nice, pure white light and avoids the yellow tone and heat buildup that would come from an incandescent bulb. The bulb is accessible through the back, which is held in place with five small screws.

Related Items: Decorative Colored Glass Mosaic Tile Table Lamp; Decorative Colored Glass Mosaic Tile Table Lamp #2; Pair of Stained Glass Candle Lanterns.