Lamp Shade DIY: Not All Projects are Winners

So, not all projects are winners. But this one ~~had~~ has potential. Just needs to be reworked, I think. I’m putting it out there to document the struggles along with the wins. And maybe to solicit your advice, pins, and/or suggestions.

I had a lamp shade that I wanted to recover as part of the black & white living room makeover that is SLOWLY happening. I had planned to use this top that I love the pattern of, but not the fit. I ~~measured~~ gestimated and thought that it just might work. It didn’t. Too narrow to fit around the shade. So the top has plans to become a pillow. It’s very excited.

But back to the lamp shade. I have tons of fabric, I could use that. But then I remembered that I had quite bit of white plastic shelf liner left from a recent move. I knew it wouldn’t be a dramatic makeover, but something about the texture and the dots gave it a really modern, clean feeling.

1. shade & liner, 2. removing trim, 3. cutting to size, 4. hot gluein’

I removed the faded black trim from the shade for an even surface. Then I measured and cut the shelf liner to fit. I hot glued the liner to the shade starting at the seam, burning my fingers all the way around. You could use spray adhesive for this one, too, probably.

I snipped a small cut in the liner around the metal part of the shade and hot glued along the inside of the lamp shade.

Finished attaching the liner to the shade and tried it on a table lamp and a floor lamp. It was “fine” on both – but nothing to write home (err, blog) about.

Not doing justice to this white elephant, Jonathan Adler-esque lamp at all.

After being underwhelmed by this makeover, I thought I’d try to embroider the shade. I looked around and found beautiful geometric examples and decided on my pattern. Then I got lazy and made some weird star things in varying sizes. Not a huge fan.

[Confession: I only did the front half to photograph because I already knew it wasn’t going to be permanent.] But the concept I like.