Floor Lamp Makeover

by Sahana

3 Materials

While we were in the process of hunting for furnitures, we scored a floor lamp for $5 in a garage sale. The lamp was in perfect condition but the metal parts and glass tray in the middle had a lot of scratches and worn out. These kind of lamps retail for $100 to $250. I was sure I can give this floor lamp a new look by spending way less money than the retail price. Let's see how I did.

I disassembled the whole lamp and laid the metal pieces in a drop cloth ready for spray painting.

Except one part, all the other parts were scratchy so I thought there is no need for a primer or sanding and I spray painted directly on the metal parts. In one of the metal part which had smooth finish on one side, the spray paint came off like a sticker. So I sanded that part a bit and spray painted again. Lesson learnt!!

I decided to spray paint the glass tray black on one side as I did not like the look of a plain glass in the middle of the lamp. Also made some star stencil with my silhouette machine and etched stars on the other side to match the theme. I did mess up a little bit while etching the stars but it is not very noticeable unless I point out. ;) Can you guess ?

Last thing to tackle is the lamp shade. It was in a beige color with a some kind of plastic on the top. I removed the plastic so that I got a plain shade to work with. I painted the inside black and allowed it to dry. To cover the lamp shade, I just rolled the shade over the fabric and marked the edges with white crayon one side at a time. Repeated the same for other side.Cut the fabric with one inch seam allowance on all sides.

Then draped the fabric over the lamp shade and pinned the sides with straight pins. Made a stitch to secure the sides and draped the fabric back on to the shade. Used binder clip to prevent the fabric from moving on the top and hot glued the base by folding edges of the fabric inside for a cleaner look.Repeated the same for the top. The lamp shade is complete. Assembled all the parts together to complete the makeover. Isn't it amazing?