Light it up

For me, DIY Day turned into more of a DIY weekend/week/month/never-ending bedroom transformation. It started with the duvet cover, then came the pillows, and this weekend I tackled covering the lamp shades and some new art (stay tuned tomorrow for the art).

I love red, really, I love it. But I’ve never really loved these lampshades. For starters, they are cranberry, not a true red. Brad and I bought them at Lowe’s when we were first married and I remember having a semi-fight in the lighting aisle that went something like, “These aren’t really the right color.” “Well, buy the right color.” “They don’t have it.” “Well, just pick something! They’re just lampshades!” So, we bought the lampshades. This was before I learned that it’s better to enter Lowe’s knowing exactly what you want or leave your husband in the power tools aisle. Anyway, after three years, I decided to cover them.

To cover your own shades, make a template by tracing with a pencil as you roll the shade 360 degrees from the edge of the seam. Do this for both the top and the bottom. I found that an opened grocery bag was the perfect size for my template.

Cut out the template, adding about ½ an inch or so all the way around.

This is a good time to try wrapping the template around the shade to make sure it fits okay.

If all is good, pin the pattern to your fabric and cut out.

Use spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the lampshade. I won’t kid you, this was the hardest part for me, spray adhesive and I are not best friends. Once you wrangle the fabric on the shades, it should look something like this.

Next step, roll the edges of the fabric to the inside of the shade and secure with hot glue.

To give the shade a finished look you will need ribbon or seam tape. I made my own seam tape by folding and gluing long strips of matching fabric.

Very carefully, glue the seam tape to the inside edge of the shade to hide the raw edge. I suggest going slowly and gluing small sections at a time to keep everything nice and even.

And there ya go!

I like the way the lamps give off a warm reddish glow when they’re on.

It’s nice and cheery.

But I also love the plain linen look when the lights are off.

Although this was time consuming, I’d do this project again in a heartbeat!

Plus, I only sustained one hot glue burn which has to be some kind of record for me!

Happy DIY Day!

<3
Hattie