$1.50 Lamp Fix

Happy Labor Day!  I hope you have a relaxing day spent with family and friends.  

I just wanted to share a quick fixer-upper.  I bought these lamps several years ago at Hobby Lobby 80 or 90% off.  

Loved them as they were and they were the perfect size to flank my mantel...I love using lighting on the mantel!  I have enjoyed them but am gradually moving away from so much red in the family room, so I put them away for a while.  When the time came to pull them out and use them again (I have a big stash of accessories that I switch out all the time, do you?), I searched high and low for new shades.  Not an easy task, being that these shades are very tall and narrow. Usually I just recover a shade that I'm tired of, but this one had curvy lines that would have made it really difficult.  I couldn't walk into Ross or Target like I normally do and pick up a replacement.  I'm sure I could have found some online or from a fancy lighting store that would have been the right size, but I wasn't willing to shell out the big bucks that I knew I'd have to pay. 


I finally pulled out the scissors ready to snip off the old shade and try use it as a pattern to fashion some sort of new one, when a thought popped into my head.  Paint fixes everything, right?  Especially black paint!  Why not try painting them?  I was originally looking for a white shade, but knew that white wouldn't work over the red fabric.  I use a lot of black accents so I decided to try it.  

  

I used a bottle of Fabric Medium from Hobby Lobby and mixed some with my black acrylic paint.  Not sure that you'd really have to use the medium but I thought it might help the paint go on the fabric more smoothly.  

Using a foam brush, I applied the paint with a light touch as evenly as possible, being careful around the edges to get a clean line.  I did discover that if I pressed too firmly the paint soaked through to the white silk liner underneath. 

After the first coat I placed the shade back on the base with the light on and could still see the red showing through, so I painted a second coat.  Perfect!  All it took was less than two dollars for the paint and about 20 minutes.

I think the darker shades add a touch of sophistication and are a nice contrast to the brick. 

In my opinion they look better than any replacement shade I might have found.  Do you have an easy fix for tired lampshades?