Lamp Shade Re-Cover

I've been on a mission lately to find the coolest/cheapest lamps to pair with really interesting fabrics in hopes I can create inexpensive fun accents for the home. I struck gold at Goodwill twice, finding two really great lamps for $5 and $8. Of course, when I got started with this project, I decided to use a lamp I already had- imagine that! So I consider the project below to be a super successful test run, and I still have big plans for the other lamps I bought.

I found this fabric at Joann's and fell in love. It has a very delicate yet Roman feel?- maybe it's the color combination? Either way, I knew I was leaving that fabric store with it in hand, although I don't have the slightest idea where it would work in my house.

Here's the before picture. Previously spray painted for a college dorm room, and survived longer than it probably should have!

Here's the after! Way more funky while still simple- LOVE the outcome!

So here's how we did it- (shout out to Amber for her super helpful assistance)

Fabric

(1 yard or a little less if your shade is sized similar to mine)

Scissors

Hot glue

First, We cut and tore the original cover off this lamp. This lamp was originally green, then black, so this is the third round for this lamp- yay upcycle!

You may need to iron any folds out of your fabric.

Lay your fabric out on the table. Lay your lampshade on top, centering it between the top and bottom of the fabric, and between the ends. The first glue you'll apply should be to glue the center of the fabric to the part of the lampshade that's facing down.

As I learned the hard way, only apply hot glue to the trim part of the lampshade. If you add glue (even dots) to the middle, it will show through the fabric.

Once your center is glued on your lamp, roll it slightly, apply a bit of glue to the top and bottom trim, and pull the fabric tight around the shade, securing it. continue this pattern until it's all glued down.

On the "back side" you'll need to trim the fabric in order to tuck it under and glue it, creating a seam.

Stand your lamp up and trim the extra fabric from the top. Make it pretty short, as you'll want it to be able to be tucked into the inside for gluing, but not show through when the light is shining. (you'll see my mistake below)

We cut little notches in the top to keep fabric from awkwardly stretching. Note the amount of fabric trimmed isn't enough, it should be shorter.

 On both the top and bottom, apply glue to the trim, and go along, pushing the fabric down, making sure it's pulled tight.

There she is!

But then.. I was disappointed by how you could see the fabric tucked behind the shade. And you could see the faded black spray paint from the original cover.

See? It looked bad.

Then we thought "OMG! Let's double cover it!" So GENIUS! (And we trimmed the heck out of the fabric on the underneath to make sure it didn't show through)

So we did, and it came out awesome!

And when it's on, it's really funky cool!

I can imagine you probably don't need to double cover it if it's not a white/light fabric.

With the extra fabric, we covered a picture frame. I'll show you that tomorrow! Stay tuned!