TABLE LAMP MAKEOVER

Well Autumn has finally arrived, the temperature has dropped, the leaves are turning red and orange and I have been thinking about my next big project, my bedroom. I find it easier to get motivated to paint when the room is cool. I have lots of mini projects to share with you, but while I get started I wanted to show you a very easy table lamp makeover I did for my guest bedroom.

When we moved I had a lot of orange accessories and ornaments from my old living room that just didn't fit with our new living room. I decided to put these to good use by decorating the guest bedroom in shades of orange and red. To me it creates a cosy warm look but bright enough to be inviting in the warmer months.

I had some old table lamps that I no longer had use for, but didn't want to get rid off them. Pretty huh? They were pretty expensive to buy as they came with a whole load of bedding and accessories. The bedding has long since gone but I hate to throw anything away that I can reuse elsewhere.

I decided I would try and update them to fit the new bedding I had purchased for the bedroom. I also looked at the colours of the cushions and wall hanging that I planned to use in the room too and went for a nice warm orange. I wanted a sealer over the top of the fabric paint so that it would last longer. I plumped for a glitter finish, just because! I also wanted to add some trim to the bottom of the lamps and purchased some gold ribbon. I bought around 2m of this along with fabric glue to apply it with. Finally I looked at the stems of the lamps and decided silver was just not the way to go with the look so purchased some metallic craft paint in gold.

I could have done with a base coat to help cover the pattern on the lamps, however, with enough coats these can no longer be seen. I used a normal brush and started painting in downward strokes all over the shade. I let each coat dry before continuing.

As you can see, one coat was not enough to cover the pattern at the base of the shade. Fortunately, the pot of paint was just enough to cover both lamps a few times without the need to buy more. Once it had completely dried I painted on one coat of the sealer. This was quite enough given that is gives a glitter finish. I love the way the light hits the glitter on the shades and how they look when lit up.

 All glittered up!

 See how the light catches the glitter?

In the meantime I also painted the metal stems with the metallic paint I had purchased. This was not easy! Even with light sanding the paint would smudge and rub off when painting with the brush. But I persevered (I couldn't really go back by this stage!) and by 3 attempts the stems were gold! They did take a long while to dry between coats so be prepared to wait awhile!

The last thing to do was to attach the ribbon trim to the bottom of the shades. I used some fabric glue and very carefully and slowly applied the ribbon around the base.  I wasn't completely happy with them though, they looked a little...well, plain. Yes I know even being bright orange and covered in gold glitter and ribbon I thought they looked plain! I suddenly remembered I had some home decor stickers that I had purchased years ago and never used, so hunted them out and added them as a border above the ribbon trim. I overlapped these slightly and turned them on their sides to represent diamonds. They seemed to fit better that way. Now the magpie in me was satisfied!

All done!

They now sit proudly in the guest bedroom surrounded with bedding, wall hangings and ornaments that complement them. I love how they turned out!

I realised after I took this shot that the cats must have been in and sat on the cushions, they look a little squashed!

Also as a side, I purchased a cheap white pendant lamp and gave that the same makeover as the table lamps. It was not a great finish on the pendant, the fabric was obviously different from the lamps so brush marks really showed. However, when it's near the ceiling who can really see? And it does fit in with the rest of the room!

Hope your week is inspired to have a go!