Y-urn-ing for another lamp makeover? Here's something for that.

The Find

I guess it is lamp season, or lamp discard season, or maybe I just notice lamps because they are functional, easy to fix, and fun to makeover. Either way, here is a story of making over a funny lamp that was designed to look like some sort of aged antique.  It was also sitting on the ground when I found it, which helped with the aged effect.

Lamp, discarded on ground.

The Makeover

After a thorough cleaning, which revealed that the aged crackle look was very much intentional, I was please to discover that the lamp electrical components were working just fine.  I was EVEN MORE PLEASED when a lampshade that I had randomly found (right? because it's lamp season??) a few weeks prior turned out to be a decent fit for the size and shape.

I had it sitting in a corner for a few days while I plotted the makeover. Every day confirmed that the aged crackled-ivory look of the 'vase' part of the lamp just was not cutting it.  It just sat there muttering, "I"m fusty," while I contemplated what color - or colors - to use.  I thought about matte black, matte white, or a dark clay red, but then the image of wedgewood blue plates popped into my head, and I kind of liked it.

Lamp in corner, with new shade

While at the hardware store, considering the spray paint aisle, I realized that if I wanted to use spray paint I would have to wait weeks for the temperature to be warm enough outside. Unacceptable! When the freestyle makeover bug bites it must be dealt with immediately.  So I trundled over to the interior paint section and found the cheapest paint sample on the display shelf - thank you 99cent jars of Glidden. At that price I could experiment!  I found 4 shades of blue on the same sample card and got matte paint samples for each.  Once back to the workbench I started painting little samples to see how the colors really looked, and how they looked against the 'brass' color parts.

testing the waters...

The color that won out is called SERENE SEA, it was the lightest of the four. In the photo below it is super washed out by the bright lamp I had shining about 6 inches away while painting, and the paint was still wet.

Repainted lamp section in Glidden Serene Sea.

Conclusion

After looking at the lamp for a few days I'm pleased, but not overjoyed, with how it looks.  In an unexpected twist (thank you subconscious?) it coordinates with a different lamp in the room that has a brass body and a blue glass shade.  My plan is to look at it for a while longer and decide if I want to extend the current amount of blue, or paint any of the other lamp body sections.  For now I am very happy with how the paint covered up the original crackled-ivory look and smoothed out the texture a bit.

Post-makeover, blue vase lamp

Happy freestyling, revamping, redoing, and all the DIY-ing!

Small Brass Lamp Makeover - Part 2 - The Shade

To Refresh Your Memory

In this previous post I described finding a lamp (a familiar tale) and the process of giving the brass body a bright green makeover. Go check it out, unless you only care about lampshade makeovers. In that case, stay right here and read on for more about how I transformed this old lampshade to match the shiny new look of the lamp body.

Lampshade with original fabric removed

The Lampshade Makeover

I had fabric on hand with a sort of slubby linen-like-look that I thought would be perfect for this project (yes, it too was free from someone cleaning out their stash).  I thought the slight texture would help disguise any imperfections.  

Fabric on floor before ironing

What I needed to do in preparation was to watch some online tutorials, purchase spray adhesive, and then lay out the fabric and start tracing the edge as I rolled it along the fabric. 

HOT TIP: Iron your fabric before laying it out for tracing. It matters.

As you roll the lampshade along the fabric, trace the top edge and the bottom edge.  You will end up with two parallel curved lines.  It helps to either tape down the fabric or have someone hold it steady to make sure the rolling of the shade and the tracing doesn't shift the fabric.

Traced line on fabric.

Add an extra inch outside of each traced line (or half-inch if you are really really sure about your cutting and gluing skills), and cut out the large curved shape.  Then, using the pencil lines as a guide, spray onto the fabric and slowly roll the lampshade across the fabric.  Spraying and adjusting as you go.  Any slightly mis-alignment at the start will be magnified as you roll, so it pays to be extra careful at the start.

Cut out fabric for new lampshade cover.

You can fold over the bottom of the fabric around the stiff edge of the lampshade.  Some tutorials suggest going over the ends with some sort of trim, this is not necessary, but if you are NOT going to use trim, take care to make sure that the cut is smooth and that the folded-over portion is the same height all the way around.

Glued edged folded over to the inside of the shade.

If your lampshade has metal bars you will have to snip out V-shaped from the fabric when rolling it over to allow the fabric to split around the metal bars.

View of shade top from inside

At the end of this process you should have the new fabric smoothly adhered to the original plastic shade.

Lampshade with newly attached fabric

One the shade has dried, reunite the shade with the lamp body.

Lampshade on green lamp, light off

This is why you want to make sure the cut ends of fabric are smooth and straight. 

When the lightbulb is on the folded over part will show in silhouette.

Lampshade on green lamp, light on

Conclusion

Now I have a nice glossy emerald green table lamp that matches some other fun mineral colors in the art on the wall of this room.

Glossy green lamp with new lampshade.

Happy Freestyling!