Just Another Hang Up: Standing Lamp Redo

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Standing Lamp Redo

These last few days have been busy! I'm getting ready for a short trip this weekend, and as a result I've been sewing and painting up a storm. We're heading west for a family reunion and some of our kids will be there. Since our newly married daughter is attending the reunion with us, I asked if she would like me to make her some pillows like I made her sister here and here. I also had an extra floor lamp that we were no longer using, so I asked if she would like that as well. The answer was "yes!" so I went to work!

We decided the floor lamp needed to be updated a bit for their more contemporary taste. Here's the photo of the lamp before the redo. Personally, I'm fine with the metal finish on the lamp the way it was. I like different finishes in a room, including metals, but said child unit thought it might be better painted brown for her more contemporary place. I aim to please.

I took some Krylon "Outdoor Spaces" brown satin spray paint and went to work. No priming is necessary. When I was finished she looked like this...

Hmmmm. Very plain Jane chocolaty brown. As much as I love that color poured all over ice cream, for lamp bases I prefer a little more variation. I hoped by adding a darker glaze it would give it a little more pizazz and a more "natural" finish. I added a couple of tablespoons of black acrylic craft paint to about 1/2 cup Ralph Lauren smokey glaze and mixed it together.

Then I painted 'er on and lightly rubbed off the glaze till the finish was just right. Ahhh, so much better. It added just the right depth to the stand and made it look so much more natural. (It looks a little darker in the pictures than it actually is.)

See the difference up close and personal...

Next I concentrated on the lamp shade. The previous shade was very formal, so I bought an inexpensive more contemporary shade at Target -- marked down because it had a little "crease" -- and covered it in some of the fabric that I used for her pillows. I used the same process to recover this shade as I did on the last shade. This lamp is now wild and crazy and so very cute!