DIY Lampshade Tutorial

Hello, Hello, my friends.  How's your day going so far?  Mine, not so smooth.  First, the little munchkin is a little under the weather.  No signs of illness (yet) except for lack of energy.  That is not normal for a 3 yr. old who is usually talking my ear off and up and down, running around.  I'm hoping it's just a sluggish morning.  Then, instead of my usual almond milk in my morning coffee, I put orange-pineapple juice.  Yuck!  That was an unpleasant surprise.  You know what kind of day I'm talking about right?  How do we avoid these?  Oh well, moving forward, it will all work out in the end. Ha!

So, onto the world of DIYing.  I'm going to continue with mini projects that I started last week.  It seems to fit since that is all it seems like I've been doing lately.  Little projects it is.  I'm actually going to share a tutorial for a fabric covered lamp shade. I've seen many ways of doing this, but this worked like a charm for me. If you're like me, very visual, lots of pictures is important.  (I hate following instructions for things, I usually go for the pictures, don't judge, it's just how I'm wired).

Meet the lamp that got a head to toe make-over.

I'm still working on the multipurpose room and lighting is essential in there since this huge room only has a 24x24 window.  I started off with typical oil-rubbed bronze lamps from Kmart that we've had for about 5 years now and a lampshade I bought at target a while back also.  Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with oil-rubbed bronze.  Sometimes it works and it did for several years, but it was time to breathe a new life onto them.  So, here goes:

Here's what you'll need:

1.  Fabric of your choice

2.  Lampshade

3.  Scissors

4. Fine point sharpie pen

5.  Glue gun or fabric glue

6.  A smile and a tad bit of patience

1. 

 Here are the lamps, pre-paint.  I think we all know how to spray paint a lamp.  If not, quick re-cap,  primer first and spray paint next, repeat paint til evenly coated. This time, however, I went with Krylon's Dual and because I wanted them so be a little shinier, I skipped the usual initial primer.  Give them a good cleaning and get to spraying.

2.

Onto covering the lampshade while the lamps dry.  For a medium size drum shade, 1 yd of fabric is enough for two (this may vary depending on the size of shade you use).  Fold long ways and cut right down the middle.

3.

Next, lay your shade right in middle of your fabric.  You'll need a pen.  I used a fine point sharpie.  We are going to slowly roll the shade to one side tracing as you go. Do this twice, once for the bottom and once for the top.  Because the shade has a slight taper, we will end up with a curve to the fabric. (Next three pics)  If you're dealing with a perfectly straight shade, skip this step.

4.

Now that we have our curved line, we're going to cut the fabric parallel about an inch and a half above the line.  I found it easier to only trace one side and then fold the fabric in half so that it would be consistent on the other side.  Cutting above the line will later allow us to fold the top and bottom for a clean finish on the inside of the shade. 

5.

Once you are done cutting, lay flat, pattern face down and wrap fabric smoothly around your shade.  You'll notice that there is an angle when you wrap around.  I used the original seem of the lamp shade as a guide to cut straight across to get rid of the angle.  (Sorry, I was in the zone at this point, I forgot to get a picture of this step.)

6.

With the angle gone, go ahead and use your glue gun or fabric glue to glue down one side to your shade.  I only glued on the rim (I have commitment issues, I figured it would be sufficient enough and if I grew tired of this fabric, it be easier to remove and replace).  Next, fold over the other side and this time, Yes, run a line of glue all the way across and overlap.  Press down firmly.

7.

Moving onto the rims.  It's pretty much of the same.  Fold over the excess fabric twice, gluing as you go.  This is the most time consuming.  Oh, and OUCH, I did manage to glue the tips of my fingers a couple of times, so be careful.  Remember, fold and glue, fold and glue, fold and glue, top and bottom all the way around.

And Viola! 

A new lampshade for the cost of a yard of fabric, a whopping $4.97 at Wal-mart.  I believe it was slightly under $10 with the can of spray paint for the whole job.  Can't beat that right?!

One more look at the new lamp, shall we.

Not too shabby for about an hour's work.  What do you think?

Have a wonderful Tuesday!