4.13.2012

DIY Friday: Lamp Makeovers

Today's DIY is something I did back when I was making my apartment less of a bachelorette pad and more of a home for a man and woman.  So my beloved thrifted yellow lamps had to... not be yellow anymore.  I didn't have money to buy new lamps, because, let's face it-- lamps are unreasonably expensive.  $60 +?!  Who has that for a new lamp?!  Not me.  So I thought I'd be brave and try my hand at spray-painting, and if they looked awful, I'd just have to bite the bullet and buy new ones.


Turns out they look awesome, like they've never been yellow in their lives.


I used Krylon glossy spray paint in a dark gray color.  


I took those suckers out behind my apartment building on the grass and sprayed them evenly, from about a foot away.  It took about 5 minutes per lamp.  After letting them set for a few more minutes, I brought those bad boys upstairs, put a paper towel under them, and let them fully dry.  My yellow lamps now look like this:





Most people don't even realize they're the same lamps, and thought I'd bought new ones.  So here's my DIY encouragement to you: pop into a thrift store.  Find a lamp whose base shape you like.  Find a glossy Krylon spray paint color you love (about $5 from Walmart).  Be sure it's the kind that is glossy, and can be sprayed on ceramics.  Spray that sucker.  Then pop back into the thrift store to find a lamp shade (what I had to do!).  Now you have a new, lovely lamp, completely customized to your color scheme.  Hooray!

*edit: sorry if these pics are so dark!  They were fine on my laptop at home, but viewing this at work... they look like I took the picture in a cave!



xoxo, A

1 comment:

  1. Amanda! This is a spectacular idea! Thanks for the tip! And YES, lamps are INSANELY expensive... and many of them the shades come separately, which is so annoying! All my lamps come from the thrift store. :)

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