::sigh::

I'm not abandoning y'all, I swear. It has been a very busy few weeks 'round these parts. Work has been kicking my butt (in a good way!); spring is creeping it's way into DC, so I've been spending a good bit of time in the garden; Cass is a handful, as always; and, it's tax season - booooo. Anyway, I have lots to post in the coming weeks - stay tuned!

xoxo,
danielle

before and after: table lamps

I found these candlestick lamps at the GoodWill last week when Cameron and I were on the hunt for a new desk for me. There's only one shown below, but they're a pair. I was pretty certain they had potential, so I embarked on (yet another) project :)

Two candlestick lamp bases

 Two lampshades (also from GoodWill)

I taped the hardware and the cord with painter's tape, and then spray-painted the lamp bases with grey primer, followed by black satin, and then finished off with cream satin. Each layer took about 2 coats.

In between coats, I worked on the lamp shade. I actually like the shade with the scalloped edge - the fabric is very light, and the strips are almost like ribbons. The one below, however - not so much. 

I chose 2 yards of lightweight, cotton zebra-print at my local fabric store. I peeled off the top and bottom fabric edges and tore off the pleated outer shade, leaving the just the inner plastic supports. Then I started draping fabric over the shade to see what worked best.

I settled on large pleating. One hot glue gun and a roll of grosgrain ribbon later, and I had a finished recovered lamp shade.

The last step was to lightly sand the edges of the lamp bases after they had dried completely. I wanted the finished project to have a slightly rustic look, and that did the trick.