Painting Shades

Lampshades, that is.

It hit me yesterday on a trip to a thrift store. I was biding my time while Mom scoured the paperbacks for her favorite authors. I’m not ready to lug any furniture home, so I was just walking around, taking in everything that had potential – with a little paint.

Then I came upon the lamp and shade section. Tons of simple white lampshades. Simple. White.

I’m not a lover of simple white anything.

That’s when I realized that most of us have an array of lamps in our bedrooms, living rooms and family rooms, and they’re usually topped with simple white shades.

Ah-ha! Simple? White? Translation: a blank canvas!

So I did what I do now when I’m looking for inspiration . . .

I blog-gled. (my take on ‘googling’. Blog-gling is much more fun, imho.)

First up is this unbleached muslin shade by Southern Girl Creations. You’ve heard of freezer paper stencils, right? Well, she used freezer paper to make her own lampshade pattern. Clever!

I’ll grant you, this beautiful shade requires more patience than I have. But I still have to share it with you.

Megan @ Little Blue Prints took her shade thru an amazing transformation – starting with a coffee stain. Coffee!!! Not tea, coffee!

Love that idea! {Even though there’s rarely any left-over coffee in my pot!}

Here’s the part where she almost lost me . . . she found a stamp with french script . . . and stamped the entire ROUND shade!

I’ll just say this, my ‘frustration-factor’ is waaay too low to attempt this. But if you’re of the meticulous and patient vein, give it a try.

You’ll get a stunning lamp like Little Blue Prints.

But I know myself. I love these two lamps, but I’m not going to make my own shade or stamp one any time real soon.

This is much more my style . . .

Michelle @ Creative Outbursts upcycled a brass lamp to this little lovely. Some spray paint on the base, a little dry-brushing to add patina, and simple leaves on the shade.

Love this!

Oh, one more thing about Michelle . . . just in case you have kids . . . drop by her kids’ art website. It’s fantastic!

No more blank lampshades for me! At least, not in my ‘mind’s eye’.

What about you? Do you like white lampshades, or have these sparked your creativity?