Restorative Living

My wonderful mother-in-law passed down this lamp to me when my husband and I bought our first home. It is a very nice lamp, but I wanted a different look for the shade.

Then one day I was meandering through one of my favorite flea/antique markets with a friend. I saw this drum shade out of the corner of my eye and muttered to my friend that even on sale there was no way I would pay what they were asking, I was just sure of it.

Then I saw the tag: $2.50. I couldn't get that shade in my hands fast enough!

Not a bad change for only a handful of change!

In the coming weeks I have plans to possible change the look entirely but I'm not sure what look I should go for...chevron striped fabric over the shade? paint the base a bright color?

What say you, readers?

So I was walking around one of my favorite home decor dives and saw these beauties:

I stopped in my tracks. Love, love, love them! Then I looked at the price tag: $60! That made me stop in my tracks again. NO way am I paying that for a lamp. It just ain't happenin'. So I went on my merry way until one day I ran across this bad boy at Marshalls.

Yep, the price tag says 70 cents!!...the price was right for me to dive into a new lamp project. If it didn't turn out lovely as all get out, then all I'd lost was 70 cents and some leftover fabric, right? Just in case you've got the urge to revamp one of your sad little lamp shades (we've all got 'em, sister), here's a tutorial of what I did...not necessarily the right way.

I hot glued the fabric to the underside of the lamp edges. I didn't want trim or fringe or any of that nonsense so I had to hide it on the underside. If you are trimming the lamp, you could leave unfinished edges. Lots of fabric bulk at the ends - you'll trim it later.

Now it looks like this: smooth and sleek. I had to use two layers because the tweed on the original shade was showing through. I folded under the edge that showed where the fabric meets on the back of the lamp shade, but I might go back and use some bias tape or something similar to hide the fold a little. If it stays in the back though, no worries. No one will see it!

I cut about 1" strips out of the muslin. (This is all leftovers and cheap!)

Then I sat down in my favorite craft chair. Remember when I made her beautiful?

To start each strip, I folded it into thirds and folded the end under, securing it with hot glue. Like this:

You may want to omit this step. I was inconsistent and didn't do it throughout the entire project. But I will say that it made it easier to keep the frayed, cut edges of the fabric from poking out everywhere. It's up to you. Fold the entire strip of fabric into thirds and smear the tiniest of hot glue every few inches to keep the fold secure.

Then pick a spot and get started! I put a good dollop of hot glue on my folded under edge of fabric and held it firmly in place for a few long seconds. I didn't want everything to fall apart half way through.

To make the rosettes, I literally just wound the fabric around and around itself, placing glue underneath the edges every so often. It's no science.

Then place more wherever you'd like.

I have waited to post this because I wanted to find just the right thrift store lamp base for it...but I couldn't hold on to this project any longer. It was just too easy and it's already gotten so many compliments from friends, that I wanted to share it! So, here's my dirty little secret...

I just set the new shade on top of an old one (it doesn't fit this base) so you guys could see it and so it could be shown off until I find its permanent home.

Not too shabby for 70 cents and a little bit of hot glue, right?