Thrift Store Lamp Makeover

When I started out remodeling our spare bedroom I bought two lamps from the thrift store. I paid $2.50 for the short one and $5 for the tall one.

I took what I learned from Ryan Taylor when we redid my office lamps here.  So first I taped the cords and hardware and then I spray painted them with primer – in this case, automobile primer because it was what we had.

After I spray painted them white, I bought $10  shades and hot glued fabric to them.

I had to pleat the fabric on this shade because the top and bottom were not the same width – deceptive little shade.

Have you redone your own  lamps?

(If you look closely you’ll see the shade we chose for the walls.  I promise we’ll reveal the rest of the room soon!)

Oh Humility! Oh Shame!

Not too long ago I bought a mason jar lamp from a thrift store for $1.  I was really excited to fill it with different stuff whenever I fancied.  I even redid a shade to match my room decor.  Here’s how it turned out:

Since I finished it, I have thought several times about redoing the shade with a different fabric.  I’m trying to come up with stuff to fill it, too.

Given my recent lamp redo, I followed this Ugly Lamp Contest with interest.  The host blog, Better After, is one of my daily reads – I love watching the way people can breathe new life into old furniture.  And it makes me want to learn how to upholster.

So I really got a kick out of the Ugly Lamp Contest.  There are some really ugly lamps out there! For example, check out the winner:

See the lamp here.

Gross!  Truly, an ugly lamp.

In addition to this masterpiece, there were a whole host of finalists.  This lil’ guy was one of them:

See it here.

Hmmmmm.  This Ugly Lamp contender is awfully familiar . . .  Where have I seen this before?

Says the host of the Ugly Lamp Contest:

“Dear, I think it’s time to have the talk with Stevie. About the birds and the bees. And his habit of capturing birds and bees in mason jars and feeding them handfuls of dried flowers and grass and then turning the whole mess into a shoddy light fixture when they inevitably die. It’s just weird.” See here.

Well, lucky enough I don’t have dried flowers and grass.  But, admittedly, I do have a shoddy light fixture.

What’s the ugliest lamp you’ve seen?  Any other substances I can use to fill mine (besides dried grass of course?)