What Should I Do With This Thing?... Up-cycling an Old Lampshade.

Megan
by Megan
5 Materials
$5.00
4 Hours
Easy
I found myself in possession of an old broken lampshade that was on a lamp in the living room I grew up in. This particular one was about 25 or so years old, and had good strong bones, so I didn’t head directly to the garbage pile with it. Because I Up-cycle just about EVERYTHING, I asked myself:

What should I do with this thing?
It was in rough shape and completely not my style, so repairing it for its original purpose was out of the question. So, I stripped off the stained, torn fabric.
The skeleton of the shade reminded me of the metal garden side tables that are very popular this year. It was too small to use as an ACTUAL side table (plus I didn’t need one), but a few weeks ago I finished my Up-cycled Planter Chair, so I thought it could be a cute side table/plant stand for that area of the garden! 
First I painted the wire form in my favorite “Gloss Grape” Rustoleum 2x.
Then, I had super hubby cut a square from spare plywood and painted it in Rustoleum 2x “Gloss Sunshine”.
I trimmed the plywood out in purple paint, and decided on a simple, whimsical (and EASY!) hand painted flower. Nothing too detailed or complicated because a plant was going on it anyway! 
Please note: I am not the world’s best painter and I am OK with that… which is why whimsy works for me. I love the imperfect perfection of all my projects! 
Just a few fun details on the flower, and then a clear coat to protect it. 
 I had Super Hubby connect the lampshade skeleton to the center of the hand painted top through the center of the fitter.
Voila! A little side table plant stand.
Here it is next to the Up-cycled Planter Chair for a perfect little vignette on the unused side porch that is the entrance to my side sitting area.  


Here is a link to my post about making the planter chair:


http://www.hometalk.com/diy/upcycle/upcycled-chair-to-planter-a-place-to-plant-yourself-28887475
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  • Karen tuplin Karen tuplin on Jun 30, 2017

    Love this . And your window looks fine! Negative Nancy's!

  • Katen Katen on May 26, 2019

    Love the idea of table. Chair reminds me of portable hospital toilet; maybe another type of plant?

  • Donna Donna on Jun 02, 2019

    Love the pair together

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