Trash to Treasure Shell & Beach Glass Lampshade

As I mentioned in my first post ever, I have a trash-digging obsession habit thing.  If I see something old and mangled that I consider to have “good bones”, I just can’t help myself – I’ll rescue the poor thing and bring it home.  Usually all it takes is a good cleaning and some prettying up and viola!  You have a cheap (in some cases free), and an (almost) brand new little lovely for your home.

I don’t know if I should be ashamed or proud to admit that I’ve repeated this process so many times that I’ve even got my family in on the act.  Our newest rescue was a GORGEOUS lampshade that my stepdad salvaged liberated from the trash pile at his work.  I knew this lampshade would definitely have good bones, because where does my stepdad work?

At The Ritz Carlton.  And they’re known for choosing things with good bones!  ^_-

When I first clapped eyes on this baby, I was in love.  It was big and Frenchy (ie: expensive-looking).  Score!!  However, I was also a little confused.  ”Umm… What’s wrong with it?” And then I saw it: a bit of a smudge.  (They were going to throw it out because of that?  Huh.)  Oh well; their loss is my gain!!

I’m hoping they get some wild new decorating idea and decide to buy brand new lampshades for every room… Hey, a girl can dream, right?  Want to see what they were so worried about?

I know, right?  Something like that happens to a lampshade in my house, I turn it towards the wall, lol.  =P

I was so excited about this find (thank you SO much, Miguel!!  You definitely know the key to my heart), that I decided to create a tutorial so everyone could create their own and share in my trashy excitement.  ^_^  Here’s what you need to get started:

And – in typical Shabby Beach Nest fashion – I forgot a few things in that picture, lol.  You will also need jute, starfish, and anything else you’d like to embellish your lampshade with.

step 1: First we need to make a pattern piece for the lampshade panels.  I used a scrap piece of paper.  But I’m thinking it would have been easier to use tissue paper because I would have been able to see what I was doing a little better.  Tack whatever you decide to use to your lampshade in order to keep it in place while you are tracing out the shape.

step 2: Use a fingernail to crease your way around the panels and recreate the shape.

step 3: Go over your creases with the pencil.

step 4: Cut out your panel pattern.

step 5: My lampshade had a total of eight panels.  Because I had four different fabrics, I traced a total of two panel pieces per fabric.

step 6: Cut all your panels out.

step 7: Get your Mod Podge ready. Wanna know a secret?  This isn’t real Mod Podge.  I ran out not long ago…

In the middle of a craft…

At an ungodly hour when all the stores were closed (the horror!)

So I made my own using 3 parts dollar store white glue to 1 part water.  It rocks.  I’m never spending $10 on the real stuff again.  Ever.

step 8: Gloop a thick layer of (homemade) Mod Podge all over the inside of your panel.

step 9: Place your fabric inside your panel as evenly as you can (but don’t worry – you have lots of time to fix any crookedness before the glue dries).  Once you are happy with the placement, flatten out any wrinkles or air bubbles with your fingers.

step 10: This step was done as a precaution and is totally optional.  I went over the edges of the fabric panels with the Mod Podge in order to prevent the fabric from curling up.

step 11: Attach any wanted embellishments with your hot glue gun.  For me, this included my starfish, beach glass, etc.  (In case you were wondering, the strands of beads behind the starfish were actually an old necklace that I never wore anymore.)  Once my embellishments were glued on, I covered each panel “frame” or “separation” (the white strip between the burlap and drop cloth in the picture above) with jute.  After that, I overlaid the top and bottom rim of the lampshade with small white shells.

And that’s it!  It’s a little time-consuming, but super easy (and the results are worth it in my opinion).  ^_-

Here she is in her new home.  It feels like a “she” doesn’t it?  Funky and feminine.  And paired with my mermaid drop cloth pillow, it’s love!!

I’ve seen so many amazing lampshade redos in blogland that I just couldn’t bring myself to try.  They were absolutely beautiful – during the day.  But because of how they’d been redone, no light was able to get through the shade at night when you actually needed them.  Before I started this project, I knew I wanted a lampshade that was both beautiful and functional.  You can decide if this seems like enough light for you and adjust your fabrics according to your preference.   ^_^

Once again, thank you so much for crafting with me.  Until next time, lovely readers!!

Sharing this tutorial with the sites on my Links page, as well as these fabulous blogs:

http://todayscreativeblog.net/

http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

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