DIY: How to Recover an Old Lampshade
Hey friends! Thanks for stopping by! Recently, I did a little redecorating in our Sunday School class at church, and most of the decorating was completed on a shoestring budget! (Thank you to my wonderful hubby for helping me paint....ehem.....actually for doing most of the painting!!) Today, I'd like to share with you one of those projects....transforming an old, dilapidated lamp shade into a beautiful accessory!
A few weeks ago, I picked up a huge lamp with the shade for $5....It worked just fine and the bones were beautiful, but it needed some major lovin'! Here's a before pic....(I'm sorry I don't have the shade on the lamp! I totally forgot to take a complete pic before I refinished it!)
After spray-painting the lamp base (tutorial on how to spray paint a lamp found here), I recovered the shade with some fabric that I had laying around the house. This project is super-quick, and you probably already have all 3 supplies that are needed!
Here's what you'll need:
fabric
hot glue gun and glue sticks (found at craft stores or Target/Walmart in the craft section)
scissors
1. Start out by laying your fabric face down on the floor. Place the shade on one end of the fabric, while leaving plenty of seam allowance (about 2 inches) on either side of your shade. And then roll your shade across the fabric to see how much you'll need. (You can either trace the shade onto the fabric as you roll it, or you can just eyeball it....which is what I did.) Now, you can cut your fabric! BUT before you cut your fabric to size, PLEASE measure twice...no three times...before cutting! Not that I've ever cut my fabric too short....Ahem. ;) Not fun to fix that problem!
2. After cutting your fabric, lay the shade about 2 inches away from the fabric's edge. You are now ready to hot glue!
3. Place about a 6-inch line of hot glue along the inside edge of the shade (starting out on either the top or the bottom of the shade). Tightly fold your fabric over the shade and push down the fabric onto the hot glue, holding it in place for a few seconds. Keep doing this all the way around the shade while continuing to smooth out your fabric, on both the top and bottom. Also, if your shade is like mine, where the "spider-fitter" (or metal piece that connects your shade to the lamp) is at the top, carefully cut slits in the fabric, so that the fabric will fold over the shade correctly.
4. Once you've hot glued the fabric tightly AROUND the lamp shade, place a skinny strip of hot glue UP the outside part of the shade's edge. (On a side note, you can either leave the edge raw....which is what I chose to do....or you can iron your seam to give it a finished look. But since my lamp was against a wall, I didn't have to worry about the back edge.)
And there you have it! A beautiful shade that adds so much life! You can also take it a step further and add trim along the top and bottom edge for a more dramatic effect. What do you think of my lamp shade? Are you inspired to make a lifeless lamp look gorgeous again? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Comment below, or stop by and say hey on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. It always makes my day to hear from my awesome readers! ;)
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