Fabric Swatch Lamp Shade

The bedroom make over saga continues… the latest addition is a lamp for my side of the bed. The other night, when I was skyping with my new Naptime Diaries mentorship friends (it was my first time skyping) I realized that I needed to shed some light on the space.

I had this simple ikea lamp in the basement from many moons ago. It had a cute red, pleated lampshade that was simply not going to work in my yellow and grey bedroom. I was able to peel the red pleated fabric off of the shade base and use it over again. A little coordinating fabric would do the trick.

Do you remember all the fabric swatches I bought when I started this project?

I had them in a baggie in the cabinet. They were so pretty that I couldn’t get rid of them. Good thing! Sometimes it pays to be a pack rat.

 I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to these projects so the fact that the previous shade left a residue on the base I was working with didn’t bother me. I just glued a swatch down, overlapped another and glued it down, and so on. I left the top edge flush because I wasn’t able to wrap the fabric over without those little poles (whatever they’re called) getting in the way. However, for the bottom, I left enough fabric to wrap under and glue down–I recommend cutting it flush so that you don’t have a shadow when the light is on. When I had the base covered, I glued strips of dainty, grey zig-zag ribbon to finish my edges.

I was surprised when my husband came home and noticed it in our room without me saying a word. Well, maybe I wasn’t that surprised; he’s just that kind of guy. I guess that’s one of the reasons I like him so much.

I digress. The lamp. I like it. I think it adds a little personality to the room. And it didn’t cost me a cent!