old lamps are rad.

if i was a good DIY blogger i would have thought to take a photo of the lamp BEFORE this project.
but i was too eager to start and my phone had just died.
i found this lamp for $3 at a thrift shop probably two years ago.
the big round part is ceramic.  (awesome right??)
it was already white.
the base and the tall skinny part were a black-ish brass color.
i tried to live with it but i just couldn’t… so i took the lamp to my garage… i took Press-N-Seal and wrapped the ceramic part with sheets of PNS until it was completely covered.  i put PNS over the cord and the electrical parts too.

then i spray painted the brass with white spray paint that was already out from another project.
it was satin finish.
So then the lamp looked like this….

this is the only picture of have of the old original nylon-polyester shade that it came with… grainy and dark but you can see that it was like any old lamp you would see at a thrift shop or garage sale.

when i buy an old lamp i am looking for one with a shade that has a wire frame underneath.
if you bought a lampshade now at a store the shades are made from a plastic form… which is fine and i have lots of those.
but if you want to recover it.. that is hard!
so with old lampshades.. the heavy duty wire base make recovering much easier.
honestly i wouldn’t even bother trying with a newer lamp shade.

i went through my fabric stash and chose ANY that i thought might possibly work in my living room.

small b&w dots – michael miller/spearmint green with birds – joel dewberry
green birds – heather bailey/red flower – suzy pilgrim waters/gray pin dot – wavily
butterflies – anna maria horner/BIG dots – moda/
multi color dot – laura berringer/cream & black dot- riley blake/gray dot – jackie studios
mint green dots – michael miller (lilypad)/green dot – michael miller (mint)/large green circles – joanns
charcoal & white birds – robert kaufman/small black dot – hobby lobby/green &turquoise floral – anna maria horner

i love ALL of these fabrics!
(i order almost all of my fabric from HawthorneThreads.com)
i draped them over the shade to compare.
i took a picture for myself to look at all of them to help me decide.

my top five were: b&w birds – large green circles – big black dots – butterflies – red floral

i chose the red floral “panel”
it is printed like this.. in a panel not a continuous pattern.
and i got a close up of the designer so you could see it.
it really is a beautiful print!  it makes me want to paint when i look at it.

and then… i sat in bed and watched a show with my glue gun and made this lamp shade.
i showed a basic tutorial on how to recover lampshades HERE about three years ago.

and while i’m at it i will show you the whole room in it’s current state.
oh hey look! we hung pictures on our wall!
one year later but we did it!

i got the africa map from @sparrowmercantile on instagram.
the other map was from Bearly Makin It.
i made the curtains from the ikea fabric again to match the dining room ones.

the be Brave sign is from Salty Bison.

i found our piano on craigslist in december.
the couches and chairs are the ektorp from ikea.
they are holding up well… white isn’t perfect but i love it so much.
there is lots of pattern going on in here… i know.
but i like pattern.
and color.  🙂

the chalkboard is just MDF painted with chalkboard paint that i used to cover up some ugliness at the farm house.
talby wrote song lyrics on it.  🙂

our buffets are matching and they were also from craigslist.
craig painted them.  (you can see them from last summer HERE)
the pictures and canvases are up but they will be changing/moving/rearranging  all the time.
(i order my canvases from all the canvas places… mpix – canvas on demand – canvas people – all of them)
and i think i will fill in that whole wall on the left.
i have a thing for photos.
i will keep adding “stuff” on this left side but for now it looks like this.
complete with Wii cords hanging down… so fancy.

the ‘glass is half full’ print is from Studio Mela.

i moved it over to the door way for better light and i loved it over here too!
those red flowers make me so happy!
and how cute is that print from KatyGirl?!
the flower vase is from world market… table from Bearly Makin It… mirror was thrifted & spray painted.

i can’t wait to find the next great lamp!
it’s so much more fun to recover and revive an old ugly lamp than to buy one done.