Lamp Revamp | Recover an Old Lamshade

Contrary to popular belief, I have not been swallowed whole by nursery #2.  Or the armoire project — the never.ending.armoire.project.  Or the other gazillion-and-a-half “nesting” to-do’s I’m trying to accomplish in the next eight to nine weeks.  Eight to nine weeks…that’s all I have left folks!  I have, however, been burning the candle at both ends trying to finish everything by April.  Oh, wait.  It’s already April.  Missed that deadline.  Needless to say, all of this prep has left me with little time for blogging — so very sorry!

That said, I really want to share with you the “journey” that is nursery #2, so today I’m going to write about one of the first projects I completed for baby’s new room: an old-becomes-new-again lampshade!  One of my favorite things to incorporate into a nursery is a cute, coordinating lampshade and it’s such a simple DIY project.

If you keep up with me via Facebook, you may recall that I found the most perfect green polka dot fabric for baby’s nursery, called Moss Spots by Kaffe Fassett.  I’m telling you, it is “bring-my-vision-to-life” kind of perfect.  The shade of green is pure magic and who doesn’t love dots in a nursery?!?!?  Parenthetically, “finding the perfect fabric” never happens to me.  Ever.  So, when I spotted that beautiful green bolt, I bought nearly the entire thing.  It was a good move, too, because it appears to be largely out-of-stock and no longer being made.  (The link I used above is to an online shop that still has some left – yay!)

Anywhoo, as the lady in the fabric boutique cut my yardage, I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the projects for which I wanted to use it.  At the top of my list…a lampshade.  ”Finally,” you’re thinking, “we’re back to the lampshade project.”  Right?!?  {wink}

It’s a simple DIY and makes such an adorable impact!  Check out the before/boring and after/fabulous:

Here’s how I did it:

I started with a shade I stole from a lamp we already owned and pulled off the finishing tape/fabric from the top and bottom.  If you don’t have a shade, you can find them pretty cheap at Target, Lowe’s or the like.

I smoothed out my fabric on the floor and placed my shade at the left edge.  Using the seam on the inside of the lampshade as a starting point, I rolled the shade across the fabric to the right, drawing a continuous line about one inch below the edge of the lamp as I rolled.  I rolled and marked until I’d gone an inch or so past the seam again.  Without picking up the shade, I carefully rolled it back across the fabric to the left and repeated that process along the top edge.  (If your shade doesn’t have a seam to use as a start and end point, just make a small marking at the top and bottom of the inside of your shade.)

You should end up with a piece that looks like this:

TIP:  When wrapping a lampshade that has an existing seam, make sure that your new seam is the exact same size and in the exact same spot as the existing.  Otherwise, both seams will be visible when light passes through the shade.

Here’s how I made sure the seams were identical:

I aligned the fabric over the lampshade (image 1) and used the existing seam on the shade to crease a line into my fabric (image 2).  Using that line as a guide, I cut both edges of my fabric (image 3).  Now, the ends of my fabric matched the angle of the existing seam.  I then glued on end of my fabric over the seam on the shade (image 4).  While that took hold, I ironed a seam into the other end of my fabric — the same width as the seam on the shade — (image 5) and then glued it over the other end of the fabric (image 6).

Almost home free.

For the top and bottom, I went around the edges with my measuring tape to make sure I had “exactly” an inch of allowance and trimmed where there was more than that (image 1).  Next, I folded it up half way and ironed it into an even, half-inch crease (image 2).  Then, after applying a small line of glue on the inside of the shade (image 3), I folded the fabric over the edge and pressed it against the glue.  Along the top, I cut teeny-tiny slits in the fabric as necessary to accomodate for the wire frame (image 4).

At this point, I could have stopped.  Buuuuut, I wanted to trim the edges with ribbon.  So, I grabbed some off-white-ish 3/8-inch grosgrain ribbon from my stash and glued it around the top and bottom (starting and ending at the seam, of course).  TIP: Apply glue to the center of the ribbon and smooth/smear it with your finger (image 1) before pressing it to the shade (image 2).  Doing so will eliminate the glue from squishing over the sides of the ribbon and onto your lovely fabric.  I ironed under the end of the ribbon (image 3), before glueing it down, for a clean finish (image 4).

Done-skies!

Here’s a pic of it back on the base.

Oh, and if you noticed that pretty little navy and white airplane then you got a sneak peek at the mobile I’m creating!  Stay tuned for more on that because I am digging the way it is turning out!!

I’m IN LOVE with baby’s new, custom lampshade.  What do you think?!?!?

XOXO