Bring light into the darkness with this box
21.12.2025
Translation: machine translated
A light box that lights up your room and sets festive accents is a great craft project for the weekend. Provided you don't despair when sawing.
Now that it's dark most of the time, I'm happy about any source of light that brightens up my living space. Homemade decorative elements in particular add a personal touch to my interior design. I was recently inspired by this DIY, which you can easily recreate.
All you need is twelve pieces of wood of the same length, transparent paper, wood glue and a light string. You can design the print on the shimmering paper with black, opaque felt-tip pens, stickers or stamps.
The big frustration right at the start
I cut the beech moulding into twelve blocks, each 15 centimetres long. Unfortunately, the handsaw keeps getting stuck in the wood and sawing becomes a feat of strength. It drives me to white heat. It brings back memories of my arch-enemy from craft lessons: the fretsaw. I make a mental note right at the start that I'm going to buy a jigsaw for my next wood project or use the cut pieces of wood directly.
I smooth out the frayed edges with sandpaper. I don't completely remove the hick that was created during sawing. Just handsaw hate at this point.
From here on it's good
I lay the four pieces of wood together on a sheet of baking paper, glue the ends to the edge and repeat this process a second time. This gives me two more or less identical wooden frames. I dab off any excess glue with a piece of kitchen paper.
I also glue the four remaining mouldings together, except that I put them up instead.
I then leave the three frames to stand overnight. Because the glue dries relatively quickly, the timbers hold together without me having to clamp them.
The next day, I cut the transparent film so that it protrudes about one centimetre over the inner edge. In my case, this results in two square sheets with a side length of around 14 centimetres.
To place the fairy lights in the box, I cut off a corner of one of the two squares. This will be the back of the light box. I stick the tracing paper to the frame with the wood glue, place baking paper over it and weigh it down with a book. This reduces unwanted ripples that occur during drying.
In the meantime, I glue my motifs onto the paper cut-out that will become the front side. I decide on a wintry motif with snowflakes and a deer sticker. I then glue this side onto the second frame and weigh it down.
I need a few more hours before the glue is completely hard. That doesn't stop me from switching on the fairy lights and trying out the lamp. To prevent the box from becoming too wide, the battery for the fairy lights remains outside the light box. I therefore hide it behind the box and position it so that the battery is well concealed. If you want, you can also attach the battery to the box with double-sided adhesive tape or even hide it in the light box.
I switch on the fairy lights and am thrilled. So much so that I can even overlook the slightly crooked blocks - for this time.
Header image: Stefanie Lechthaler
Painting the walls just before handing over the flat? Making your own kimchi? Soldering a broken raclette oven? There's nothing you can't do yourself. Well, perhaps sometimes, but I'll definitely give it a try.
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