Monday, March 21, 2016

Painting Lamp Shades Pros & Cons {Master Bedroom}


I can't believe I've gone over almost two years without a lamp next to my bed!!!  
I admit.  I'm scared of the dark.  I need to be hiding under my covers before I reach out and turn off the light, because somewhere between the light switch on the wall and my bed, someone is sure to grab me!  

But you know me.  I couldn't pay for new lamps.  Just couldn't.  I'd go to the store with every intention to just bite the bullet and purchase some but ahhhh I would get the guilts and put them back.

I finally found this pair in a Saint Vincent De Paul's on the parkade in Cedar Falls, IA while visiting family at Christmas time.   I liked the shape of the shades, even though they were dated and dingy looking, and the base was wood and you can always paint wood.  At $6 each, and not having luck anywhere else.... I snagged them.




I'm going to BE REAL with you in this blog post.  Painting a shade has it's cons!  Sorry to be negative, but you need to know this before going in to it!

 Here are the three major cons of painting a lampshade:

1) It makes the shade very brittle.

Be very careful with your shade once the paint has dried!!  It will crack easy.  So probably not good for a kid's room...  but I figure the master bedroom is safe from too much craziness.  No commenting on that. ;)

2) It takes a lot of paint and it doesn't always dry very even.

Lampshades really soak up the paint and can look blotchy once it dries. To make my paint go farther, I water down my paint a lot and really rub it in with the brush.  It's like giving it a "white wash".  When it dries, I repeat the process two more times!

3) Sometimes the blotchy-ness is not noticeable until you turn on the lamp.  The light will illuminate every inconsistency in your paint job!  Horrors.  But if you're like me, nobody really sees the lamps on in the bedroom but those who dwell in the house.  And me and hubby really don't mind. :)


 For the base, I mixed some dark gray and white paint and applied two coats.  I have no idea what made it dry this way, but it almost has a pottery texture.  I sanded off some of the edges to give it a distressed look.



The shades still aren't perfect, but neither am I, and I'm just glad to have something cute and matching on either side of the bed and to keep me safe from the boogie man.



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TDC Before and After

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad they turned out. Don't try that with a peach shade though. Not matter how much paint you use it will always have a pink hue. Not cool, and for sure not pretty. I love how they turned out. Good job Kammy!

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  2. Love your painted lamp shades. I recently spray painted a lamp shade lots of different colours and was really surprised how well it turned out.

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  3. When I painted an upholstered chair I used a spray bottle to dampen the fabric before brushing the paint on--I wonder if that would help? I'm definitely game to try!!

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