Spray Paint Your Lamps, Bro. - A Beachy Lamp Upcycle

Danielle Colomb Weaver
by Danielle Colomb Weaver
4 Materials
$50
45 Minutes
Easy
Bronzy/Gold Lamps. Let's make that stop, shall we?
My house was built in 1900 and we have no overhead light in the living room. We moved in just over a year ago, and had been task lighting our lives with random lamps (including my old college torchiere lamp haha).


I grabbed these two matching lamps at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $5 each, with the intention of seeing what would happen if I painted them. No real plan. Just an idea and a couple bucks...
The Lamp Savior.
I bought a can of this paint in white, and sprayed the lamps after cleaning the surfaces. It only took one coat. Remember to shake the can throughout the application to get an even texture.
Nice modern shape to contrast the old base
These lampshades were from Target. Fairly inexpensive and a good scale for the lamps. My living room is shades of gray and deep blue/teal.
No. Gold. Ever.
Finials from Home Depot to hold the lampshades in place. Since the original lamps were bronze/gold and had one finial missing, I grabbed these to go with the gray lampshade. I wanted NO remnant of the gold color.
I love cutting corners. ;)
The lamps were stark white and a little sterile looking, even with the texture. So as a finishing touch, since I'm lazy and impatient and I didn't want to go get a paint color mixed, I mixed together a colonial blue color from my acrylic art paints. I dry brushed that in a linear motion around the surface of the lamps - giving it an almost white-washed look to the white lamps.
My beachy lamp.
And here is one of these guys, ready for my living room! Definitely can't buy new big beautiful lamps like this for around $50!


Winning.
Before and After.
Suggested materials:
  • Brushed Nickel Ball Lamp Finial   (Home Depot)
  • 13x15x10 Inch Gray Lampshade - Threshold   (Target)
  • Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel Textured White Spray Paint   (Home Depot)
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2 of 6 comments
  • E95656 E95656 on Feb 05, 2021

    Love this!

  • Nancy Walters Nancy Walters on May 17, 2023

    For even more personalization, for the finials, check EBay! If f they are not rare , or wildly popular, you can get really nice, vintage ones. I am a maniac, so I change mine every major holiday😊 They have gone up in price, but still reasonable. My favorites are solid brass, of cherubs for Valentine's day. I use 4 differ ones, all alike, but each playing vs different instrunent.

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