Export to PDF | Export to DOC

Here's my NEW (old) lamp after I gave it a makeover.

Here it is in its original state, since purchased at Dollar General, at least 12 years ago. It WAS cute when I bought it, but now it's rather out-of-date looking.

before: BORING

after: SUPER CUTE!

There was an old lamp lighting up Tim’s office that I’ve had my eye on to use in another room of our home. He recently put up some wall sconces, so once he didn’t need its light anymore, I snagged the old lamp for our family room.

We don’t really need the extra light in that room, but I wanted something cute and tall to put on the trunk shown in the photo. (The trunk that I picked up by the side of the road in a pile of trash one day while living in Milwaukee–some of my favorite home decor was acquired from the streets on garbage day, but that’s another story.:) )

I was pretty sure that all this now-sorry-looking old lamp needed, was a paint job and new shade to make it feel up to date.

So that’s what I did.

I spray painted the base of the lamp a golden orange to bring out that same color found in the fabric of my window treatments and matching pillows.

Then the shade DEFINITELY needed to be changed. Since I had only spent $12 on this lamp and have had it for at least 12 years, I decided that I could probably spare a few dollars for a new shade. But as I got to thinking, I just new I would search for years to find the right shade, and then probably wouldn’t be willing to pay more than $20 for it anyway, which seems an unlikely price for a SUPER CUTE lamp shade. “Super cute” being the minimum requirement to give this old lamp base a new look.

So I decided I’d just buy a cheap shade and then recover it with some cute fabric. I got the shade for $10 and then with the fabric and different ribbons, the total was about $20.

To make the shade, I just cut out four pieces of checked fabric on the bias to get the diamond shape, and glued those pieces to each of the four sides. Then I just started covering the seams with the three different ribbons I had bought, by gluing those on too.

The side seams are covered with an orange ribbon to match the shade fabric. And then the other trims are meant to bring out some other colors found in my room. There’s a hot pink trim on the top and bottom of the reddish-orange ribbon that borders the top and bottom of the shade.

Before I started painting, I would have never put these almost clashing colors together. But now I love the vibrancy you get from pairing magenta and orange.

I think I spent about an hour in the fabric section picking out ribbon/fabric, and about an hour gluing it all together. I put about 5 coats of paint on the lamp, so that was probably another hours worth of my life.

Three hours and $20 later, I’m a happy camper. Every time I see my new/old lamp it makes me smile. It’s was just what the trunk needed to help brighten up my (I guess already pretty bright) room.

I love my NEW/old Lamp!