Monday, August 30, 2010

Pretty lamp

Not too long ago I repainted my desk lamp.  Painting it made it a little more pleasing, but it wasn't the style I really wanted, nor the look; it was a temporary fix.  Until today!  I had found a wooden stick lamp at Goodwill for $3.  Some "Italian Olive" spray paint and voila! Gorgeous green!
Add to that a little of the fabric leftover from this basket project and I love how it makes my desk  prettier and little more inviting.
Here's what I did:
Laying my lampshade on a big piece of paper, I held the pencil close to the edge and rolled it around from seam to seam.  This was tricky with holding a camera, too. Please excuse the shaky pic!
I then cut the shape out to use as my pattern - beforehand I was careful to make sure it fit all around the shade before I cut out the fabric.  Gosh I love this fabric...I think it was $3 a yard at Wally World while they were putting all fabric on clearance - they don't carry fabric by the bolt anymore...boo! hiss!
I used a pencil on the wrong side of the fabric to make where to cut.  I cut it exactly to fit the shade; I didn't want to tuck under the edges.  (Make sure you don't cut it "upside down" if you have a one way design.)
I squeezed craft glue directly onto the shade and used a foam brush to spread it around in a thin film then just pressed the fabric to it and smoothed it out as I went.  Yes, that is the world's ugliest ironing board cover...
Ideally, you want to match the seams so you only have one seam showing when your lamp is lit, instead of two.  I did the best I could and gave it a little overlap as well.  Imperfectly beautiful, you know!  I sealed the edges with a small amount of craft glue to keep the fabric from ever fraying.
I LOVE IT. 
Cost of the lamp: around $4 which includes the lamp, a small amount of spray paint, and shade and fabric that I already had.  Plus, it only took me about 15 minutes. The colors in the fabric are green, terra cotta, purple, and gold - and look so good with everything else in there.  I might add a little trim onto the edges, but I'm not making rash promises here.  On to the next project!






4 comments:

themasons said...

love it too! great job:)

Anonymous said...

Looks great ;o)

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Love your lamp! Great job!

Unknown said...

Your lamp looks great! Love it!