Sunday, January 17, 2010

Crap to Fab Lamp


I had a $10 Walmart crappy flimsy floor lamp.  I hated it.  My husband needed the light.  I needed to make it prettier.

So, I took this lamp:



This tube that came from a bolt of fabric that I bought:



And this table runner:



And made this:



The metal pole was so skinny, and I was adding a lot of "beef" to the top of the lamp, so I need to bulk up the bottom.  I spray painted the fabric bolt and the base of the lamp so it would all match.

The fabric was a little too short, so I added a little bit of a paper towl roll, and used painters tape to hold them together:



Classy, I know.  Hey, it could have been a toilet paper roll!

I had a drum shade from a lamp that has been in a closet, so I stole it, stripped it and used it to make the shape of the lamp shade



I just cut the table runner down, and then glued the two ends together after wrapping it around the naked shade.

Total cost to me: FREE
Total cost if I didn't have all this stuff laying around: $14
Lamp $10
Table runner $4 (from Ross)

Before:



After






I'm linking this up to:

Twice Remembered
It's so Very Cheri
The Shades of Pink
Thrifty Decor Chick, Before and after party

32 comments:

  1. Wow that looks great! I would have never thought to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ok THIS is a great project! Your "new" lamp looks fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very creative, came out beautiful!
    Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great make-over. That lamp is stunning now. from plain to fabulous! I love it! Very creative project.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Totally ingenious. Looks fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love this!!!! Clever
    I've thrown many of these away. I think I have one that I might try this on for my son's apartment. Do you think I could use pvc pipe? How did you attached theshade to the fixture?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wldgrneyes:

    I think I PVC pipe would work GREAT! Way better than what I did! While spray paint covers a multitude of yuck, it doesn't magically make cardboard appear metal :-)

    You could actually just clip the "shade" onto the existing shade, but we didn't have anything to clip with. We were going to use a staple gun, but we didn't have one around the house (the plastic shade that's already on the lamp is thin enough you could staple gun through it). There are alot of things you could do to connect the table runner to the existing shade, you're not limited to having another drum shade around (that's just we had that would work)

    PVC would be fantastic! I hope you send me a pic if you do this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have been looking on Pinterest for a lamp like I recently bought second hand and cannot find it. This revamp is somewhat like the one I’m doing now. It is so ugly. I thought it was wooden but it is metal and the length is bigger around like a column. I couldn’t put PVC on it so I decoupaged a piece of wallpaper around the full length of the pole. The paper has a raised design texture. After it’s fully dried I’ll paint the entire lamp a light beige and dry brush the raised texture white. I’ve never put pictures of my projects on Pinterest because I really don’t know the procedure but I’ve taken, pictures of before and will do after pictures as well. I love all the clever redo’s like this on Pinterest.

      Delete
  8. Wow, ok...I HAVE THAT LAMP TOO! Right now, it's hanging out in the garage with my husband's junk. Thanks for the idea!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have a couple of those "up lamps" that I despise... great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love it!!and now I wish I'd kept the tube from the fabric I bought :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your lamp looks great! I have an ugly floor lamp in my garage. I may have to copy this! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Awesome idea...looks outstanding!

    Blessings,
    Linda

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have a lamp just like that...hate it...but need it...what a great idea...thanks for sharing! And I LOVE your candle chandelier...turned out so great!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Girl, that is the cutest idea! I hate those $10 lamps from Wal-Mart. You turned it into a beauty!
    Blessings,
    Suzanne :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love the lamp, Stef! I'm on a lamp and shade kick this month! My next project is two I found in the basement that need painting and shades.

    I finally posted about that wall art {this morning}! I did it over the Summer, but I'm just now ready to hang them. I linked to you.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love this idea! I've been looking for ways to redo a lamp base for a while now, and this is the first I've seen. Very creative!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Now that's just clever! Love the way you you "beefed up" the base.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have the same lamps and I agree! Thanks for the idea and tutorial. Looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have the same crappy lamp and my husband needs the light too :) And we BOTH hate the lamp (and he is NOT one to care about decorating or how things look.) I'd love to beef it up and make it prettier at the same time. Genius!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Nice job! It looks great. Come chek out my new blog, www.bloggermum.blogspot.com. I had a pretty ugly lamp and transformed it as well.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I have put off buying that cheap lamp because even though I love the cheap price I don't like the look of it so I wil be using this idea.

    Oh I love that you "stole" the lamp shade lol

    ReplyDelete
  22. Great idea!!! I am filed it at thecraftersfilebox.com. You have save me from an "ugly lamp" moment!! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is great! How did you put the shade on? Over the existing lamp or did you take the plastic part off?

    ReplyDelete
  24. I had the same "uplamp" that I painted and plopped a new shade on. All my light still shines only up. How did you get some light to shine downward as well?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Can you show how the shade sits on the lamp post from the inside?

    ReplyDelete
  26. How did you shorten the length of the lamp?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Thanks for nice idea👏🏻Can u please explain how did u introduce fabric bolt, from up or down. As I forgot , how I assembled it?

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear from you!

Related Posts with Thumbnails