Revamp the Lamp

I have begun the great office decoranza but am taking it very slowly. Why? It might be because we just made some large purchases and our budget isn't all that flexible at the moment, but in actuality it is mostly because I can't come to a decision on my color palette until some little (and big) projects are finished first. So, in my (cough-cough) spare-time last week, I tackled one of those said projects on my list: revamping the lamp.

I bought this lamp base and shade from Goodwill so long ago that I can't remember what I paid for it (my guess is less than $5). Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of the base before I painted it (shame on me!), but I have faith that you can imagine it a school bus yellow color. After a few quick coats of white gloss spray paint, the yellow was gone like a flash of light. However, the off-white shade with the white base was not doing it for me, so I tackled that next.

I had previously seen this DIY project Young House Love posted about recovering a drum shade and thought I could follow those steps to recover my lamp shade, no problem...that was until I realized my shade was not-so-much a drum shape but had a nice curve that I would have to account for. So, to modify their instructions, I made a template of the shade (similar to a pattern you would buy from a fabric store). I wrapped a large sheet of paper from a roll of newsprint I had picked up from my local newspaper for a previous project, taped it to the shade, drew an outline of where the edges ran, and cut that sucker out.

Then I pinned the template to my fabric and cut it about 1/4" larger which allowed enough fabric to wrap around and glue down on the interior of the shade.

As my glue gun was warming up, I quickly smoothed out the wrinkles with my iron and ironed a hem at the edge of the fabric that would be attached last.

I started by gluing down the raw edge of the fabric that I had not hemmed and proceeded to glue the edge of the fabric that circled the bottom of the shade. I didn't start gluing at the top of the shade because the circumference of the hoop was smaller and I didn't want to be stuck with fabric that was too tight when I started gluing the bottom of the shade.

Once the fabric was attached around the top and bottom edges, I dispensed a thin line of glue along the hemmed edge of the fabric, pulled it tight, affixed it to the shade, and called it a day.

The shade looks fantastic on the freshly painted base and I can't wait to use it in our to-be-decoranza'd office. And do you want to know the best part? I only spent a few bucks on the fabric to do it!

Anyone can handle this minimal DIY project. It was easy to complete and can change a dated lamp into an entirely different piece. Has anyone else recovered a lamp shade? Did you find it easy or was the shape difficult to work with? Send pics!