Showing posts with label trash to treasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trash to treasure. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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

Pin It