I'm not sure how I fell into it, but it seems I have developed something of an obsession with revamping old lampshades. That was exciting, wasn't it? Probably not. New they can set you back a good $15-20 or maybe more, depending on size and trendiness. But you may have several shabby or unprepossessing specimens lurking about the house or find a couple at the local thrift store or the neighbor's yard sale for pennies. There is a vast array of sizes, shapes, materials, colors, and construction so it useless to try and give an overview here but a quick search on Google or Pinterest will yield an overwhelming assortment of ideas to get you started. But there is minimal skill or equipment required for many ideas: a hot glue gun, spray adhesive, mod podge or a little paint, an old t-shirt or some scraps of paper or lace or ribbons or even buttons. You can paint them, recover with a material of your choice, or even mod podge something over top.
I had a very unexciting specimen (my first attempt): an off-white ruffled thing, full of dust; it had a cracked plastic base thanks to a certain two-year old and I figured it was done for. I ripped off the cloth cover, stabilized the cracks with clear packing tape, and recovered it with a bit of fabric and spray adhesive and it looks great. I didn't want to go out and buy something to cover it, so I tried to use something from around the house but couldn't find anything to fit my fancy (or my living room) that I wanted to part with. I had an old table cloth (white) from my grandmother (not an heirloom, just something she didn't want but couldn't throw out so she figured I needed it) that had a nice textured floral pattern but I didn't want another whitish lampshade. The walls are white, the carpet beige, do I really need more colorless neutral tones? Of course I would dye the silly thing, because that is what every sensible person thinks of in cases like these, right? Actually I had a jar of 'instant rust' left over from a wood aging project (basically vinegar and steel wool in a jar) and as I knew rust was a horrible stain, could I use it to somehow banish that horrid whiteness from my tablecloth? I googled it and apparently you can (so now I'm naturally dyeing fabrics as well as revamping lamp shades, who knew I was this creative?!...I'm not, it just looks that way). It came out a nice dark coral-ish color (and happily a few shades lighter than the dried blood shade it could have been).
You don't need to do anything that lavish, I just used what I had lying around the house and it was fun just to try different things. It can update your decor rather inexpensively and who knows, you may discover a hobby of your own!
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