Lamp Love: A Redo

Friday seems as good a day as any to share with you my latest and greatest project. This replaces Good Food Friday today, as there hasn't been much good food around these parts. I've taken a brief sabbatical from cooking and have focused my attention in a hundred other places. One of them, decking out our little home. This lamp redo was inspired by one over at Crafting in the Rain. Hers was so cute I had to do one for our living room. Here is how it went down:
1. I purchased this lamp at a garage sale for $1. Not hideous, but not fabulous either.

2. I purchased a yard of white polka dot fabric. My inspiration shade was white, so I thought it was a good idea. It wasn't. Halfway through, I realized it was looking like it belonged in a young girl's bedroom. But I have pictures of the next step in white anyway: cut into four inch strips. Fold the strip in half and iron it on the fold.


3. Every few inches, fold the fabric over to form a pleat and pin into place. Once you have the length of your fabric pinned, sew across the top (near raw edge) of fabric, making the bottom of the pleat a finished, folded edge. You may need to put two strips together if your shade is large. Iron the pleats down.

4. Hot glue the pleated strips on to the lamp shade, joining at the back and overlapping slightly. I used 2 prints...One I had on hand, the other I found on clearance to replace the white. While this was happening, my husband was graciously spray painting the base for me with paint left over from our silverware hanging.


5. I finished the top by gluing on some white bias tape I had on hand and then adding a little rick rack. It turned out a little whimsical/vintage and fits in with our eclectic decor.

I finished the project in about two hours and for less than five bucks.

All my best,
Robin