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!