I have had a pair of lamps sitting in my garage for well over a year now. I think it’s been more like a year and a half. A friend of mine bought them at Goodwill and the minute I saw them I knew I HAD to have them. I knew that with a little lot of love, they would be perfect in our bedroom.
So, I got them from her and put them in the garage, where all the projects go until I feel ready to take them on. They have been moved around a lot. My husband has tried to get me to give them away on numerous occasions. I almost did because I didn’t have a clear vision of how I wanted to transform them. My friend who originally bought the lamps even gave me paint in the perfect color. It wasn’t until I found shades that I finally felt inspired to work on them. They are massive lamps, so I knew I needed big shades. Every time I tried a shade, I felt like they just needed something larger. Last week, I found some great shades. It’s about time!
Here’s how they started out.
Ew, I know! I think sometime in the 90s someone tried to update them with a sponge and some spackle. Well, that definitely made them better, right? Trying to sand that stuff off was not fun. I eventually enlisted my husband’s help. The lamp on the right is after I started sanding.
It took a lot of muscle to finally get them smooth. Once I was happy with the surface, I mixed up an under coat color. I just took two little bottles of acrylic craft paint that I had on hand and mixed them in a cup. It turned out this nice mustard shade.
After some drying time, it was time to paint the top color.
Kind of shocking at first, right? That’s part of the bedding behind there, so the color is pretty close to perfect. I did two coats of the aqua then I sanded some spots to rough up the texture. Finally, I waxed them with some Johnson’s Paste Wax.
They look great in our room!
A start to finish collage.
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