A Thrifty Lamp Makeover

I’m excited to share this makeover with y’all today!  I gave this $2 yard sale lamp a new, beautiful life and I’m positively giddy how it turned out especially after I nearly went into cardiac arrest over the color that came out of the spray paint can! Ha!

{swoon}

I cleaned up the lamp with a damp rag to prepare it for spray painting.

I decided to use Rust-oleum’s Paprika spray paint.  Doesn’t that color look a bit muted on the can?  Ahem. It’s not. Ha!

I taped off the lamp with blue painter’s tape and then gave it a couple coats of fire engine red…um, I mean paprika.  I almost died at how bright it was. Yikes!

After the paint dried, I used my sanding pad to rough up the edges and take off the glaring orange.

I used a short, quick motion with the sanding pad to achieve light distressing all over the lamp. I finally began breathing again after freaking out from the unexpectedly bright orange. Ha!

I wanted to add a bit of subtle texture to the distressed paint, so I pulled out a Sherwin Williams Drizzle paint sample that I already had on hand.

I used a rag with a bit of paint to highlight edges and random areas of the lamp.  The color and technique is very subtle which is exactly what I was going for.

To finish the lamp, I pulled off the painter’s tape and almost jumped up and down because it just looked beautimous!  Now for the lamp shade…

I snagged this drum shade at a thrift shop for $2 and then I covered it with burlap that I attached with hot glue.

To cover the rough, unfinished burlap edges on the inside of the shade, I hot glued bias tape in place.

I finished up the shade by adding ribbon and a bow that tied {no pun intended...ahem} the base and shade together.

I adore having this beauty in my living room! It perfectly ties in with the lamp on the other side of the sofa that you can see in the background in the above picture.

For less than $20 I gave this lamp and lamp shade a new home on my sewing machine side table.

Do you enjoy upcycling and repurposing?

I’m linking up to How-To Day, Before & After Party and The CSI Project!