Another lamppost

I don't know why I think that's funny, but I just kill me! Another lamppost!  Get it?  Oh, you do?  It isn't funny?  Oh.

I worked on not one, not two, but THREE lamps recently! Here are the other two.

First we have a floor lamp that I found on the side of the road last summer while taking a walk with the kids.  We must have looked pretty funny - Jack was on one side of the stroller and a floor lamp was in the other seat instead of Ella.  I love her, but seriously, a free floor lamp?  I had to choose, and the lamp can't walk.

It was originally white, and I thought I wanted it black, so I got a can of spray paint and went to town.  Now, spray paint is oil based, as are factory painted pieces of furniture, so I thought I would have no problem.  I didn't realize that a baked on, shiny factory finish would need to be sanded to a dull surface in order to hold the new paint.  It dripped everywhere, so I did the mature thing and got mad at it and left it in the garage the whole winter until this week.  Talk about a time out!

This week, I went to Sherwin Williams and asked them what I should do.  They suggested sanding the black paint down until smooth, priming, and painting again.  And that's what I did.  I realize the color is a little crazy in the room right now, but I'm adding in more of that color in other places and if it ends up looking out of place when I'm done, I'll just paint it black like I had originally intended to do.  It's about to get crazier before it makes sense, though.  Get ready.

This is my shade fabric.  I. love. it! 

It compliments the other fabric that will soon be on a bench in the room.  See the blue in the fabric on the right?  It's the same as the lamp base.  Is it making a little more sense?

I actually liked the shimmery silver of the shade, but had to cover it because of the imperfections in it.  It was another Homegoods clearance item.  Did you know you can barter at Homegoods and their sister stores, TJ Maxx and Marshalls {and many other stores, for that matter}?  If you find something not on clearance but with defects, you can ask for a discount.  There has only been one time that hasn't worked for me.  And I walked away from the purchase because of it.  And then I asked Handsome Hero to go back and get it for me for my birthday.  I have no will power {sigh}.

I used the same technique that I used on the last lamp, except that I didn't trim it beforehand because the shade was cone shaped and I make too many mistakes to trust that I would cut it correctly.

Once it was covered, I trimmed it and glued it down.  The pictures below show how I snipped excess on the top so that it folded over easily.

Then I covered the inside raw edge with ribbon.

Now that was a mistake.  See how you can see through to the inside on the picture below?  I need to fix that.  You can't see through like that on the table lamp or the kitchen pendant that I finished in the same way, so I'm a bit surprised.  I think I will use a utility knife and take off  the extra on the inside.  Yuck.  Not a fun job.

Anyway, I thought it needed another little something,

So I added some gray trim.

Now, here's where you can see my second mistake.  I should have ironed the fabric before putting it on the shade.  I thought it would just disappear, but it didn't.  I'm not sure what to do about it, but you can't really see it when it's on the lamp base.

Looking at the finished product, I think the base color is too bright, but I'll wait to change it until the other elements in the room are complete. 

It's funny:  I love all the parts of this lamp in theory.  The base is one of my absolute favorite colors,  and the fabric is one I have had my eye on and was thrilled to get to use.  Both should theoretically have worked in the space.  Not sure that they do....  The lamp kind of looks like it belongs in a teen girl's room.  Still, I'm all about eclectic, so I'll wait to do anything about it until I've upholstered the bench, changed the pillows, etc. 

Now for the other lamp.  The one in the picture below was from Goodwill.  I put a plain white lampshade on it, but it was boring, so I added some pleated ribbon to the shade.  Sorry the pic is so dark. 

Here's the close up of the shade.

And {drumshade roll, please}, here they are together. 

Still not sure about that floor lamp.... 

It's going to give me hives thinking about it.