Hi there, remember me? I've had a few ideas floating around in my mind about some posts I've been wanting to do and have been working my way through them but a day goes by, then three, and now here it is a week later and I haven't gotten a single one of them completely done or posted!! Well, I'm taking care of that right now. Aren't you glad?
A few weeks ago, I went in our local thrift store and found this little lamp. I was needing wanting a spindle type lamp for my sewing area to provide better lighting and this one was only five bucks. Other than being a bit dirty and fairly plain, it was in pretty good condition and it worked!
All I needed to do was apply a little paint and fancy up the lampshade some. I had some leftover toile fabric from the shower curtain in the bathroom that I wanted to use, so all I needed was some trim. I was at Hobby Lobby and spotted this pretty pale pink glass bead trim. I'm not normally a fan of this type of trim but I'm wanting to add a few feminine touches to my sewing/craft room and this works well with the cream. sage green and light pink colors there. And I also bought some dark sage green braided trim as a backup. Plus, they both were on sale. Woohoo!!
I finally got to a place where I could set aside some time yesterday to transform this little beauty! The lamp spindle was a flat white and I wanted to add a bit of color. So, I pulled out my acrylic paints...Antique White and Snow White. Once painted with that blend, I wanted to 'stain' it a bit with the antiquing medium in Apple Betty Brown but had to apply an acrylic sealer first.
Once that all dried, I applied another coat of sealer. Kind of a "smudgy" type finish. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have just stuck with the snow white not adding the antique white and going with something like a walnut color with the antiquing stuff. It turned out to be a bit more brown than what I was wanting, but I like it. I can always change it later, right?
Now on to the lampshade! I gave it a little bit of scrubbing to get the dust off. It was kind of stained but I was going to cover it, so it didn't matter. I didn't include the braid trim in this picture because I wasn't sure whether I was going to use it or not. I wanted to use something that made the the entire fabric stick to the shade, so I pulled out the spray adhesive, which I had never used before.
First, I had to make a pattern. Grocery sacks make great pattern pieces and keep plenty of them on hand. Laying the shade on its side, I used my trusty pen for drawing as I rolled the shade around in a semi-circle creating a pattern.
I cut the fabric on the fold because the pattern went in one direction but ended up cutting it in two pieces anyway because it didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would.
Working my way around, I sprayed a bit then pressed and smoothed out the fabric a bit. I really loved using the spray adhesive as it allowed me the freedom to reposition the fabric when necessary. Can you see the ribbed edges of the frame? Well, I didn't like the way it looked, so I decided to cover them with the braided trim as well as along the top and bottom, which I am really glad I bought.
I decided to use hot glue for the braided trim slowly working my way with each piece, putting a little glue and then pressing down making sure I got it lined up right cuz once that sucker dries, it's done!
This project became an adhesive menagerie because I used double-sided adhesive tape for the glass beads. The spray adhesive is a bit messy and, with the dangling beads and ribbon, I could see a catastrophe waiting to happen. The hot glue wouldn't have allowed me to be able to reposition if I needed to. So, it was on to the adhesive tape. In fact, once I got it all on the first time, I didn't like the way it looked so I took it off and did it again. It is a permanent tape but it takes a bit for it to set up. By the way, use the scrapbooking kind or craft type, but not the Scotch brand type. Something on a roll is easier to work with when you're working on a long piece like this.
Ignore the totes in the background. Those are Christmas decorations that need to go in the attic (door on the left) but I need to put my shelving unit in there first. Anyway....there you have it. My little thrift store lamp with just a little bit of glitzy feminine touch. What do you think?
Now I need to finish the next project/post I've got going on. But I think I'll go get the massage I've got scheduled this afternoon first. :)
Hope you have a blessed day today, my friend~
