Linen and Tulle Lampshade

I know it seems like all I do is paint furniture, but there was a time when sewing and lampshade making occupied a lot of my time. You may remember the pair of linen shades I recovered for twin, vintage lamps or this basic lamp shade tutorial I posted on my blog in 2010. Don't forget about these two, linen lamp shades I recovered in 2011. Now, taking you all the way back to my very first blog post with the mini burlap shades I made for a plain little chandelier.  It is nice to take time out from painting and focus on other creative projects.

One of my regular Loot customers brought me a lamp to consign for her.  She also left an old lamp shade and a vintage bridal veil and said I could use the veil to make some kind of shade for the lamp.

I ripped off the old shade covering, exposing the bare, metal frame.  Then, I cut the veil and some pretty, white linen fabric into strips and tied them to the top and bottom of the metal frame.  

This was such an easy way to create a new lampshade!

This shade sold right off the lamp the first weekend I put it for sale at Loot.  Now, I am back to where I started and need to make another shade for this lovely lamp.

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Verdigris Bird Lamps

My sister-in-law found these unique bird lamps at a thrift store in Pennsylvania and bought them for me for Christmas.  My parents went to visit them at Christmas time and my mom brought them back for me in her suitcase.  I finally got them when I visited my family on my birthday back in February.  I love these lamps!  I finished painting them a while ago, but I had to wait to find the perfect shades.

This is what the pair looked like when I got them.  They are vintage (I am guessing 80s) with a copper finish, which gave me the idea to make them copper verdigris.

They look elegant atop my Louis Blue and Graphite Buffet.

It took me a while to find the right shades for this pair.  I wanted them to be simple because I did not want to detract from the beautiful detailing of the lamps.  I went to Target and brought back shades at least three different times and none of them seemed to be a perfect fit.  Finally, I know this is probably obvious to everyone else, Nancy suggested I take a lamp with me and try the shades on there. Well, I already knew that Target did not have the right shades for me, so I started to look around locally.  On the way home from the farmer's market, I spotted a local family-owned company, Riverside Lighting, whose windows were full of, what seemed like hundreds, of lamps and shades.  I made my way over there the next day and they have an entire room of just lampshades!  Plus, they were 20% off that day and I found the perfect pair of shades!  They are sophisticated, creamy linen with a simple drum shape and I think they look just right in scale and style on the bird lamps.

To create the verdigris look over the copper finish, I mixed Provence and Chateau Gray Chalk Paint.  Then, I dry brushed it over the lamps, letting the copper show through.  For those of you that have not tried Annie Sloan Chalk Paint over metal yet, I can tell you it does an amazing job of adhering.  I did not even wax over top of the paint because I thought the chalky look and feel made the verdigris finish seem authentic.

These beautiful, bird lamps are for sale at Loot.

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Whitewashed Lamp with Custom Shade

I found this bland lamp at a yard sale for $2.  I am currently on the hunt for lamps because I have so many shades stocked up at home. 

I wanted to whitewash this lamp instead of painting because the finish had such nice texture and I wanted some of that to show through.

 I whitewashed the lamp by thinning some of my white paint with water.  I brushed the mixture on and then wiped it off. I applied a brown glaze after whitewashing and the final color turned out to be a grayish-white.

The owner of Blessings Boutique, Sherry, knows that I like to recover lamp shades and she generously gave me a few of her self-adhesive shades to try.  This was my first time using one of these and it was so much easier than recovering a regular lamp shade.  I didn't even know these existed! I loved how the adhesive held the fabric in place as I wrapped it around the shade.  I still applied a little hot melt glue to the top and bottom edges and then attached a mini-ruffle trim.

Another thing that made this lamp shade easier to recover is that the paper comes off and becomes the pattern for cutting out the fabric.  I usually have to trace the shade onto paper as I roll it along to make my own pattern, like I did here.  The self-adhesive shade saved me sooo much time!  

Here is my finished lamp and shade at the boutique, ready for a new home.

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My Sister's Bedroom Makeover

I just spent two days visiting my younger sister, Emily, and her family in San Diego.  I did not have as long of a visit as I wanted, but I did leave her with a little dresser makeover during my brief stay.



before

Emily received a set of three vintage dressers from her mother-in-law when she got married.  There are two small dressers that she uses as nightstands and one larger one.  She told me that she was ready for new bedroom furniture, as she just got a new bed and wanted updated nightstands/dresser too.  I do not believe in buying furniture new, especially when you have some that is perfectly functional and only in need of a little re-love. 

Her dressers have a lovely shape and I like the scalloped edge along the bottom. The finish was well-worn and outdated, but that was easy to fix. The first morning I was there, we headed to Home Depot and bought some supplies and got right to work!



After

She also had a little lamp with a garage sale lampshade that I wanted to recover. 

I used some vintage bird and floral fabric that Emily got from our older sister, when she cleaned out her massive fabric collection. 

Below are pictures of the finish before and after.

I used a palm sander to even out the surface and remove the old stain before primering.  Then, I painted two coats of pale gray.

When the paint dried, I distressed all the edges, so that the white, base coat and the original wood showed through in places.

We originally wanted to buy crystal knobs for the dressers, but in an effort to save money, we spray painted the existing knobs silver.

I used things that she had around her house to decorate her dresser.  I love the blues, silvers and grays together.  Emily loves birds, so I paired her ceramic bird with the bird fabric on her new lampshade.  She has several of the beautiful, old, blue mason jars with the original lids from garage sales and she got the l-o-v-e letters as a wedding gift.

This is just a start. Emily is going to finish painting the other two dressers herself.  I think it is a huge improvement already and I can't wait to see her room when it is all done!

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Linen and Ruffle Lamp Shades

I have an obsession with recovering lamp shades and I seem to find them in need of recovering everywhere I look.  I sometimes wish I could pass them up because it is a time consuming project.  I covered this plain, white shade in a pale rose fabric and added a ruffle trim.  This is my favorite lamp shade so far.  I love the gentle scalloped edge on the bottom of the shade with the ruffle trim.  I was going to sell this one at Blessings Boutique, but I love it too much!  

Now I need to find the perfect lamp redo to go with this shade.  Isn't this subtle fabric beautiful with the light shining through it?  

The other lamp shade, I finished yesterday, was a $1 garage sale find and started out bright red.  While it was in perfect condition,  I am just not that into red.

I ripped and cut the red fabric off of the lamp shade frame, while still leaving the liner intact.

I covered the frame in some pretty white linen, covered up the seams and added a raw edged ruffle to the bottom.

I put the shade on a $2 thrift store lamp and moved them both out of my to do pile and into the shop!

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Tutorial Tuesday: How to Recover a Basic Lamp Shade

I had a couple of requests to do a tutorial showing how to recover a basic, cylindrical lamp shade, so here goes. This type of lamp shade is not only very easy to come by and cheap, but it is also very easy to recover. You can even find them new at Ross for $2.99. I got this one for $1 at a thrift store. I wanted to recover it in linen, but cannot afford the luxury - another example of my champagne tastes and my beer bottle pockets. So, I opted for a less expensive linen-like fabric and picked up this flax colored muslin for $2.99/yard. Usually muslin is more of a creamy beige and so, I was very happy to find this unusual, brownish-gray muslin - a perfect imitation linen.

This is how I recovered the lampshade:

1. Lay the shade on a large sheet of paper or newspaper and, starting at the seam trace the top of the shade as you slowly roll it until the seam is on the bottom again. Then, roll it back and do the same for the bottom edge.

2. Cut out the paper pattern and wrap it around the shade to make sure it fits well.






3. Then, pin the paper pattern to your fabric and cut it out.




4. Iron a 1/4" fold where you will overlap and glue the two edges, so it will look like a finished seam. Wrap it around, pulling it tightly and glue the seam together first.


5. After gluing the seam together, you can glue the fabric to the bottom and top edge.

You can leave it plain, if you like or add trim or a ruffle to the bottom or top edge. I decided to try a double ruffle on my shade for some extra frou frou. If you need help making a ruffle, see my Tutorial Tuesday from last week on how to sew a ruffle. The only thing I did differently with these ruffles is that I sewed the double stitches straight down the middle of the fabric strip, instead of biased to one side as I showed in the tutorial.



Continuing on...
6. Cut two lengths of fabric (2x the circumference of the shade). For mine, the first strip is 3 inches wide and the second is two inches wide.




7. Ruffle them up!



8. Glue the wider of the two ruffles along the bottom first.





9. Glue the narrower ruffle inside the wider ruffle along the bottom edge.

Here is the final result: a lovely, linen-like, double ruffle lamp shade!

I found this vintage lamp base, which is actually a candle holder, at a thrift store for a couple of dollars. It was brass, but I painted it white and lightly distressed it. It is hollow inside, so it should be very easy to turn it into a lamp with a lamp kit. I think it pairs nicely with my new shade.

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