Lamp Makeover

My craft room has very little natural light which it makes hard to see when I am sewing ripping out stitches. I decided I needed to get a lamp but couldn't find one that I loved. One day while at my moms I decided to take one that she was going to trash off her hands. I have a whole shelf in my closet of my mom's junk that is waiting to be repurposed.

Here is what it ended up looking like when I was finished with it:

It definitely wasn't anything pretty when it started but I liked the shape of it.

I knew I wanted to spray paint it. Because electrical stuff and spray paint don't mix, I taped off the cord with painters tape and I also took a grocery bag and taped off the part where the light bulb goes.

My lamp was part brass and part wood so I put a coat of primer on first so the paint would adhere to it better. Then I put several coats of cherry red spray paint.

I found a plain white lampshade at Target for around 10 bucks.

I planned on putting little rosettes like this one on it but I ended up not liking the way it looked on the shade.

So onto plan B...ruffles.

I tried to take picture of each step in making the ruffles but well that wasn't easy to do so I will just give you the basic steps.

- Cut the fabric to the length and width you want. Mine was 2 inches wide.

-Set your sewing machine to the loosest tension and the longest stitch.

- Using extra strong thread(this is VERY important) sew a straight line down the center.

- Take the top string and pull it cinching the fabric all the way down to the bottom until you get it as ruffly( pretty sure I made that up) as you would like it.

- Then knot the strings at both ends so your ruffles stay in place.

I then simply hot glued the ruflles to the lamp shade.

This lamp only cost me around 10 bucks.

lamp: free

spray paint and primer: I already had

fabric: I already had for another project

lamp shade: 10 dollars

I love it and I think it has a lot of spunk. My husband was less than thrilled with it and wanted to make sure it wasn't going in a room where he would have to look at it often. So I think I will make another just for his nightstand ;)

The fabulous parties I am linking up to:

Lil Luna
Organize and Decorate Everything
Crystal and Co.
House of Hepworths
Delightful Order
Gluesticks
Tatertots and Jello
Be Different Act Normal
I Heart Naptime
Tip Junkie
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Let Birds Fly
Somewhat Simple
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Tidy Mom
320 Sycamore