There's A Light...

Over at the Frankenstein place. Any Rocky Horror Picture Show fans out there? I remember the first time I saw it and thinking that Susan Sarandon was a decent singer. Anyway, along with a picture frame shopping spree at IKEA this weekend I also got lamp happy. Many, many weeks ago I bought a really ugly yet cheap (and working) lamp at the Good Will (GW). It was priced at $8 but was actually only $4.

The GW one is the one on the right. Don't you love the shiny brass? I finally decided to work on it this weekend. My intention was to spray paint the base and recover the shade. The shade was kind of...gross and Barbara sent me a link to self-adhesive shades available at Hobby Lobby.

This seemed like a cheap solution so I went to Warner Robins on Saturday with my mom but the only shades available were too small for the lamp stand and for the one in my bedroom I wanted to redo. So, we ran over to Target to see what we could find. Well, I bought a cheap little lamp for my new school desk (the one that the GW purchase was originally intended for but was too big for the tiny desk), a new shade for my lamp on my nightstand

(purchased at Target about 10 years ago), and a new shade for the GW lamp that would have a new home on Jeff's nightstand. I used sandpaper to rough up the metal and wood on the Target and GW stands and then wiped them down. I decided to spray primer on the stands which is a step I usually skip when spray painting.

The tinfoil thing is something I saw on Pinterest. After 2 coats of primer I did 2-3 coats of oil rubbed bronze spray. I popped the new shade on the GW lamp and it was done.

My lamp got a simple shade switch (say that 3 times fast) and voila!

Jeff's looks like the more masculine version of mine. I wanted to recover the plain white shade on the little Target lamp with the fabric purchased at Joann's.

I cut my fabric and out came my trusty spray adhesive (used on my magazine boxes). Then I proceeded to hold back tears of frustration as I tried to roll the fabric onto the shade without creases or lumps. I think it took me at least 10 tries but the adhesive is pretty forgiving. So, here's the before and after.

It's on a dark table so you can't really see the base very well. It will be on my green desk eventually so I'll have updated pictures then. It's actually very cute in person, it's not perfect but it's cute. I tucked the excess fabric at the top and bottom and then added decorative trim with ribbon.

I didn't like the messy top so I added ribbon on the inside as well.

I started working on framing my literature artwork for my desk area and measuring where to nail in my shelving. Two weeks until class begins so I better keep up this pace!