Baby Girl's Nursery, Part 3: Lamp Makeover

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

-Plato

What I'm reading:  It Starts with Food

What I'm writing:  romance novel

As promised, today I am bringing you my lamp makeover.  That's right, your dreams have come true.

Much like the previous post about my canvas alternative, I wanted a cute lamp for Girl's dresser but did not want to spend $30+ at Target.  I headed to one of my favorite treasure-hunting spots:  the D.I., otherwise known as Deseret Industries.  For those of you who are out of state or not familiar with the D.I., it is basically Utah's version of Goodwill.  There are always lots of ugly "nice personality" lamps to choose from, and I was not disappointed this trip.  I spent $3 on a tall candlestick lamp with a square shade.  I wanted something with good form but I was not worried about color since I knew I would be performing an Extreme Makeover.

In typical not-yet-a-blogger fashion, I did not take a proper "before" picture of this lamp.  Just know that the base was kind of a beige with hand-painted floral vines running up the side.  A couple quick coats of white spray paint took care of the base.  (Remember, when painting lamps, always tape off the metal top section where the lightbulb goes, and the cord if desired.)

My bigger concern was the shade.

First, I was a little scared to tackle a square shade because I wasn't sure how to accommodate the corners.  This was another project where I spent way too much time obsessing over how to make things work, and finally said, "Shut up brain!" and decided to wing it.  I have found that no project is EVER as difficult in real life as I make it in my head.  The bigger concern, though, was that the shade was kind of a hand-made paper texture over very thin plastic, with dried leaves and twigs embedded in the paper.  I thought maybe I could just leave the garden clippings in the shade, but when I tried holding fabric over the lamp with the bulb on, this is how it looked:

AAAARGH!  Ghost Plants!  They only come out when the lights are on!  (There might be a book idea in that...)

Seriously, though, I knew I would never be happy with seeing these weird silhouettes every time we turned on the lamp.  At this point I had serious doubts the shade was salvageable, so I figured, what the heck, I'll try ripping out the foliage.

Using my amazing finger nails, I just carefully picked at the shade until I tore through the top paper layer, and then removed the dried botanical specimens.  It was very technical.  When I finished, the shade looked like this:

A little rough, but not bad, considering I was planning on covering the entire thing with fabric.  I spent some time on the Interwebs and found a perfect tutorial on Crafty Little Chick for covering a square lamp shade.  Once I had seen an example, I had a lot more confidence.

First, I laid the shade on one side on scrap paper and traced it to create a pattern.

(Yes, friends, that is Stampin' Up! scratch paper.  I pretty much used what I had sitting on my craft table.  I'm lazy resourceful that way.)  Next I pinned my pattern to my fabric of choice, which I had already washed and ironed.  I don't know why I pre-washed it, since there was really no risk of throwing my lamp shade in the washer and shrinking it.  I guess I'm an overachiever.

In the tutorial, she put matching bias tape around the corners, the top, and the bottom of the shade.  I decided I wanted to add decorative trim around the top and bottom instead, so I opted to just fold the fabric over the edges.  I added a little tab on the top and bottom to make this work:

I squared the edges of the top and bottom tab so I wouldn't have big bunches of fabric in the corners.

Next I used fabric glue along the edges to adhere the fabric.  This was a great option, since I figured my hot-glue gun would melt through the thin plastic of the shade.  I loved Crafty Little Chick's tip to use the glue only on the edges so the fabric can be removed easily if desired.  I am a nerd who hoards office supplies, so I had plenty of binder clips to hold the fabric in place while the glue dried.

I used 7/8" Heat n Bond tape to make bias tape for the four corners.  It was very easy and I discovered I really love this stuff.  Good thing I followed my craft hoarder instincts (are we noticing a hoarder theme here?) and bought 4 rolls.  One would hate to run out, wouldn't one? 

 I used hot glue to apply the bias tape to the edges, and to add Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip ruffled ribbon around the top and bottom of the shade.  Now that I had fabric, I wasn't worried about melting the plastic.

NOTE:  The hardest part of this project was choosing the ribbon.  I sent a multitude of pictures to my sister, who patiently and lovingly told me they all looked great.  That is her official job as my sister.  In the end I loved the contrast between the light green and the dark brown.  Plus, the ribbon was pre-ruffled, which gave it about 50 bazillion bonus points.

Finally, I tried my hand at making ribbon rosettes.  I hadn't made these before, but there are tutorials all over the web.  They were very easy and honestly, would have been even cuter if I hadn't been all perfectionisty about wrapping them.  I used strips of pink fabric for two of them, and Mambo Melon polka dot ribbon from Stampin' Up! for the third.  I rocked the "use your stash" rule on this project.

 And the finished product:

Quite in love.  For this project I bought Heat & Bond tape, and that's it.  I had everything else already.  There are no Ghost Plants when I turn it on, and everyone who has seen the lamp thought it was purchased this way.

Thanks to Crafty Little Chick for the tutorial.  I think this is a great example of taking an idea you see online (or from a friend or in a magazine or whatever) and making it your own.  Be brave, say "Shut up, brain!" and go for it!