First up: “The Script” shade. This is crazy easy. All you need is a light colored shade and a sharpie. I got this shade at Thrift Town Carmichael for $1.99. We have a wall hanging in our house that lists our family rules. I used those rules as inspiration and wrote them in sharpie all over the shade. Love the transformation, especially since it cost me $2. Great for lighting up a reading corner or desk. Would also be great to write out a love poem and put it on your special someone’s side of the bed or desk to let them know they’re special.
Next up: “Knot Your Everyday Shade.” I think this is my favorite. I know it’s my tween and her bff’s favorite as they were begging me to make ones for them. I took the above gold BORING lamp, spray painted it chrome, and stripped the shade all the way down to it’s wire frame. I then grabbed all the scrap material I had socked away (scrap ribbon will work too), and started tying the scraps from wire to wire on the frame…simple knot on both sides, repeat. Make any pattern you wish, or go funky and not have any match. This is great for a kid’s room of any age, also great for a dorm room, laundry room, really any room that can use a pop of color! This took about an hour’s time, and around $15 total (thrifted lamp + spray paint). This was very EASY.
Now up: “A Bit of Whimsy.” This I did in under five minutes, and three of those minutes were me trying to find where I put the black satin ribbon from the last time I used it. Pick your shade, tie ribbon around the shade and secure it with your standard bow. Add a decorative clip (which I found at Thrift Town’s Stockton Ave. Sacramento, CA location for $0.99), and you’ve just added personality to your lamp. I did not use any sort of adhesive, though you can. I just tend to change my mind on decor often…so the less permanent the better. Plus it allows me the option to swap out looks seasonally.
And, finally: “All Ruffled Up.” I was in over my head on this one as I don’t own a sewing machine, nor have ever used one, so when I saw the instructions called for “ruffling” and the photo tutorial showed a sewing machine, I called my amazingly talented friend and asked for a quick ruffle lesson and the use of her sewing machine. I found scrap ribbon at Thrift Town El Camino in their bins department for $1. I cut eight, three inch wide strips of fabric that were around a yard in length. We set the sewing machine to a straight stitch and adjusted the length and width to the maximum allowed, and sewed straight down the middle of each strip. Once the stitch was sewn down the middle of each strip of fabric, well, we ruffled, by holding one piece of thread in one hand and scrunching the fabric together, moving down the strip until the whole piece of fabric was…ruffled. I grabbed a glue gun and the shade in need of some TLC, and added one piece of ruffled strips to each of the four sides of my squarish shade. You could ruffle the whole thing, but I am a believer less is more, except when chocolate is involved, and stopped at just adding it to the bottom of the shade. I think it would be great as an accessory or source of light in any shabby chic decor setting. This too took about an hours worth of time, but if you’ve got your own machine and know how to ruffle going into the project, it would most likely take you about half an hour.
