Wednesday, December 22, 2010

You light up my life....

....that's right folks, today is the day.  Remember my $5 craigslist lamps that I talked about here?  Here's a quick reminder of what they looked like before:


Well, after some cleaning,



And sanding,


And (spray) priming,


and (spray) painting,



Here's the finished product (pictured next to the one that is still in its original form):



 And in its final location (for now at least!):



I chose yellow for the color in order to pick up the yellow flowers in the above pictured pillow - I'm going with a mocha/walnut/sea (?)blue/yellow color scheme in the living room.  I'm not totally in love with the lampshade, but it was on sale at JC Penney for $20, so I snagged it - I may swap it out for a similarly shaped white shade in the near future.   Here's the cost breakdown:

  • Lamp - $2.50
  • Shade - $20.00
  • Cleaner - free (I already had on hand)
  • Sandpaper - free (already had on hand)
  • Spray primer - $3.44 
  • Spray paint - $3.44
TOTAL COST: $29.38

Not bad, if I do say so myself - and I'll bet that if I had been more patient, I could have found a shade at Goodwill or some other thrift store for much less...

I'm not going to dive in to the other lamp right away - at the moment, there's no place to put it in the living room, so it may get an entirely different makeover once I figure out where it's going to go.

2 comments:

  1. Okay - that settles that... I'm 100% going to do this to an old brass lamp that I have (and recently replaced - phew!). I love the bright color and how easy it is to transform into something you love. I really love your color choice, by the way - looks perfect!

    Oh, and I've had a tough time finding lampshades, especially drum shades, so I say good for you on the shade. It definitely works for now, at worst!!

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  2. Thanks so much Kara - it was super easy - my only advice, which I should have mentioned above, is to do several light coats of paint, as opposed to just a couple of heavy ones - less chance of drip marks, dries faster, and I think it results in a overall more uniform look (since you're able to touch up any light spots with one of the additional paint coats). Good luck, and share pics when you're done!

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