SCALA NERA

An upcycling project.

Nikoletta T

7/30/2026

>>A late evening respite, a few minutes to re-organize our thoughts, an hour to read a book or listen to music… We are comfortably reclining on soft cushions and SCALA NERA stands next to us, illuminating these precious moments, while leaving the rest of the space untouched, in its quiet darkness…<<

Snaps like this do NOT come to mind when we encounter a well used object. Not even with AI help. The particular floor lamp, with the old and worn cable and the out-dated, dusty, fabric shade, couldn’t inspire us at all; nothing to dream of when we looked at it. But... that architectural black metal base was worth noticing.

>>The dream is hidden in allowing the object to enter our space, is hidden in the exchanged energy, in brainstorming.<<

Beyond the obvious initial motive to rescue the thing - that is to give the floor lamp a makeover - too many questions remained unanswered: Origami or papier-mâché? What colour? What form? How to replace the old cable? -How are we supposed to make it pass through the base? -I'll get a snake. -Neh, not working… three 90deg angles in a row, it won’t pass through…

PAINTmyNOOK’s origami lamps are mainly white, or off-white, following the path of Isamu Noguchi. The base and the frame of the rescued object is black. In what context the shadow of the black frame through the white paper would make any sense?

>>The dream is hidden in materiality, beauty resides in the nature of the material itself.<<

…And the materials we choose hide the magic combination

[uniqueness - sustainability - aesthetics]

the pillars of PAINTmyNOOK’s philosophy.

Eventually, the object found space to tell its own story. “There’s got to be something countering acts of destruction with acts of creation” as Theaster Gates has said, an American artist, cultural entrepreneur and social activist (worth learning more about his work). The beautiful bronze-black textile cable and the bronze parts by Creative Cables, replaced the old functional elements. The double-sided black, japanese paper with the linen texture (brought to us by Perrakis Papers), was hand-folded using origami techniques, upgraded the outdated shade and allowed us to keep the original form.

There was still a problem we could not solve; how to support the cable and lamp-holder.

>>The dream is hidden in the stash.<<

Konstantinos keeps a stash of various fragments and low value curiosities.The dream came true with a wooden part of a broken Montessori toy.

“If you search, you’ll find”. And the lampholder found its support.

Now, we find ourselves again, laid back and relaxed, next to SCALA NERA:

a floor lamp with black metal base, total height 120cm, shade diameter 50cm, lampholder compatible with E27 led lightbulbs, textile cable, simple black switch and black two-pole plug. Available option: to replace the simple switch with a universal dimmer switch. The floor lamp is downlight, as the black paper is light impermeable.

We invite you to visit PAINTmyNOOK; we will get acquainted and you will have the chance to have a closer look at SCALA NERA. In case you possess an old lamp, please do not rush and discard it, get in touch with us, let’s talk about it for a moment. We have the way to give your lamp the place it deserves in your contemporary interior.