Project: Lampshade Cover

Years ago I was going to do my living room in a jungle theme. Don't ask me why I thought that was a good idea. I had a giraffe picture and a lion picture both in black frames on the wall and I had bought a brown zebra patterned rug to go on the floor. I also bought candle paint because I had seen some cool ways to do candles in animal prints. One of my friends at the time, had gotten me a small table lamp with a cheetah print lampshade cover. I ended up returning the rug and I never painted the candles because the theme never stuck. I was digging through old stuff awhile back trying to find stuff to sell on Craigslist when I came across the cheetah lamp. It really does not go with anything in my house now but I needed a small lamp for my computer desk so out it came.

My computer desk decor is black cats, pumpkins, spiders, headstones, cauldrons, etc. You get the idea. : ) Needless to say that cheetah lamp has been sticking out like a sore thumb for awhile now and between yesterday and today I finally did something about it. First, I was going to take off the cheetah fabric but I quickly found out that was going to be impossible. I had some black tulle that I was going to use but I would have needed a ton of it to cover the current print and by the time I was done, my lampshade would have looked more like a potpourri sachet. Not what I was going for. So it was off to the craft store.

The craft store was having a big sale on fabric...perfect! After rummaging through the plethora of fabrics, I found just what I was looking for. It was black satin with intricate flowers that had some red in it too. I guess you could say it's Asian? I got the fabric cut and then I was off to find some type of stripping to put around the top and bottom. They didn't have what I was looking for so I went home and figured I would work something out. After getting the fabric on, I looked at my project and thought it was pretty sexy, if a lampshade can be sexy, that is. I thought maybe the fabric alone would finish it off but the top and bottom looked unfinished as is. So off to another craft store I went.

The next craft store had exactly what I was looking for...black satin ribbon. I went to get it cut and turns out the amount I needed was the amount left on the spool. The lady at the counter said it was meant to be. : ) I got home last night and put the ribbon on and it was exactly what it needed. I went to inspect my project this morning and you could see cheetah print if you looked inside the shade so out came the paintbrush and black paint. I wasn't going to do anything with the inside but if you were sitting under the lamp or were taller than it, you were going to see it and it was quite atrocious. So after letting the paint dry for awhile, I have a finished project that I'm rather proud of. Before and after pictures shown.