Thrifty Lampshade

Today, I wanted to share with you something I whipped up about three years ago but have never featured before.  When we found out Noah was on the way and that he was going to be a boy, we started looking for the perfect bedding set and room decor.  You’d think that since we were naming him Noah, we’d have gone for a bunch of cutesy animals on a boat, but that’s not really my style.  I wanted something simple, boyish, and fun that would transition well as he grew a little older.  I found this nursery set by Bananafish and fell in love.  It was modern and I liked the color combination.
We bought the fun coordinating sticky dots for the walls and I had fun putting those up everywhere.  I also painted some wooden letters from Michaels to spell out his name on the wall over his crib.
{here he is the week of his first birthday…wasn’t he a cute 1 year old?  meanwhile, where did my baby go?!}
Everything was just the way I wanted it…except for one thing.  I had a lampshade issue.  This is a pic of the shade that matches the set.
Problem one was that I didn’t really like it.  I thought it would look better if it had more of the stripes or polka dots incorporated into it.  Problem two?  It cost $36.  For just the shade.  No lamp included!  Plus I’d have to pay shipping.  No way was I going to shell out almost 40 bucks for a little lampshade I didn’t even like.  But the trouble was, I didn’t know what else to do.  I searched high and low for a plain blue, brown, or caramel shade anywhere I could find it, but the color was never right.  You can see that the blues have kind of a turqouisey hue, which made it impossible to match.
Then, one day I was in Michaels in the ribbon aisle and I happened to look up above where all the ribbon was displayed.  There were photos of various ribbon-oriented projects and one was…a lampshade!!  Cue the spotlight and “hallelujah” music!  They had taken ribbon and used it to make a striped pattern on the shade, and I decided then and there that I was going to do the same thing.  I bought four spools of ribbon: one light turquoise, one dark turquoise, one light brown, and one dark brown.  I purposely got them in a variety of widths, some solid colors and some with white accents.
I bought a cheap plain lampshade at Target and brought all my goodies home.  I picked a starting spot and began to attach the ribbon to the shade, wrapping it around to the back and using hot glue on both ends.  I alternated colors pretty randomly, just like the pattern in the bedding set, and every so often, I cut a small piece of ribbon and tied it around a piece I had wrapped to create a knot/bow effect at various different heights aroudn the lamp.  I put it on a base we already had in the house but weren’t using.
It was, and still is, a perfect match!  Noah thinks it’s cool looking and now that he’s old enough to understand, he loves that Mama made it for him.  All in all, I think it cost me less than 20 bucks for the whole project, plus I had ribbon left over that I used to accent other things I made for his room and his scrapbook.  I forget the exact total because it’s been so long…:p  I’m a lot happier with the result than I was with the shade that cost twice as much, and it’s still getting good use three years later.  That’s what I call a deal!
PS- I’m looking for a few guest posters to feature during the week of August 1-7; if you would like to share a beach-themed craft, decor idea, kids’ activity, recipe, or anything else you have up your sleeve, please comment or send me an email at [email protected]!
                                                               

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2 Comments

  1. You did a great job on that lamp, very creative thinking (I didn’t like their lamp either). The rest of the room, however, mmmmmmm I love the brown and blue together. Great pick.

  2. love it!! special momma stuff is always the best. especially when they get older and can look back at pictures and see all the wonderful things you’ve done. thanks for linking this up to last week’s tip-toe thru tuesday party! (you were 1 click away from being in the top 3) hope to see you again this week!

    as for the guest posts, let me know. i have a projects that i could do… email me and let me know. [email protected]

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