Under-lit Galant work space

Len had a job for a few months where his office desperately needed to be refitted. With a limited budget, he went to Ikea to find a way to make his work area more cool and funky.

He says, “I succeeded, and a lot of the credit goes to this really easy hack of a Galant desk. There are several pieces in the Galant family. I chose the silver A-Frame adjustable legs and the Galant rectangular ‘desktop with frame.’ The desktop is glass, slick on the top surface and frosted (translucent) on the bottom surface. The frame is a rectangle underneath the glass. As soon as I saw this desk, I knew I had to find a way to light it from below. A quick trip through the lighting department led me to the Dinge lights. They are available in a translucent white/grey that goes perfectly with the silver painted frame of the desk. When paired with the correct Sparsam fluorescent bulbs two of these will consume less than 15W of power while providing a bright, crisp white light.

If you screw open the clamp on the Dinge all the way it just exactly fits on the frame of the Galant desktop, pointing upwards to shine on the underside of the glass top. Use some white zip-ties to secure the cords to the frame, and you’re done!

These photos don’t do it justice… the lighting is really pretty even rather than being the distinct ‘hot spots’ shown in the photos (blame the camera). I really miss this desk & lighting, so I may re-create it someday.”