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Thursday, March 22, 2012

DIY Beaded Lamp Shades




I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts that we’ve been working on getting our guestroom set up.  Today, I want to share about the pair of lamps I found for the room.

 I found these lamps at Goodwill before Christmas and purchased them with the guestroom in mind.  Both lamps were priced at $15 a piece, which is kind of high for Goodwill.  Since I bought them on the first Saturday of the month, I only paid $15 for both of them. 

That’s still probably more than I would have liked to pay. These are really nice lamps though, and I was just kind of drawn to them.

Knowing that I still needed lamp shades for my new lamps, I went to my craft closet and pulled out two shades that I got during last year’s garage sale season.  I paid a quarter a piece for them and thought that I could get a little creative with them. 


To start this project, I first had to tear off the ugly fabric.


Second, I cleaned the glue from the fabric off the frame and spray painted it with this metallic spray paint.



Once the frame was prepped, I started the beading process. I already had beading thread, but I needed to buy some beads, so I kept my eye on the Hobby Lobby weekly ads. I waited for the week that beads were half off, and then I bought eight bags of these beads (110 beads per pack/sized 12 mm).

FYI: After I bought my beads, I found some here on Amazon for a similar price to the sale price at Hobby Lobby, but the Amazon size is smaller than mine (1,000 beads per pack/sized 6mm).   I also found these beads (480 beads per pack/8mm) here on Amazon .  If you really don't want to spend hours stringing beads, and you aren't opposed to spending a little more money, go here to find 30 feet of linked beads for $20.

Once I had my supplies, I was ready for the beading process to begin.   To do this, I first had to knot a piece of beading thread to the top of the lamp frame.

Once the knot was secure, I beaded the thread, like I would a necklace, the length of the frame.

Then, I knotted the end of the thread to the bottom of the lamp frame.


I repeated until I had beaded enough strands for the frame….

 I screwed the lamp shade onto the base of the lamp…..

…..turned it on, and watched it glimmer:)

In the end, each lamp shade cost about $5 a piece, and I really like the way they look in the guest room.

21 comments:

  1. wow thank you so much for this tutorial! (and the link for the beads!) I am absolutely in love with this! I love the reflections on the wall! I personally think those lamp bases are adorable and I probably would have paid that much for them, haha!

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  2. What a creative idea.

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  3. So great looking! I love how the light looks through your beading. I LOVE a good lamp revision!
    -Revi

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  4. What a great idea. The lamp is beautiful. I love the base of the lamps. I'm a new follower from Inspire Me Monday.

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  5. What a great re-do. I love the beads!

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  6. your guest room looks great and i can imagine how sparkly those lamps are when they're lighted. good job!

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  7. These turned out so nice, beautiful job

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  8. I have some shades that I have been trying to decide what to do with, and this is a great idea! Thanks for sharing! I'm pinning for later. (And giving you credit in the pin, of course!) :)

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  9. Absolutely love them! You did a great job. :O)

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  10. Those are so awesome! Thanks so much for sharing them with us last weekend at Inspiration Friday! I'm going to go put them on our facebook page.:-)
    Vanessa

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  11. What a super cute idea!! Thanks for sharing at Feathered Nest Friday!

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  12. dear sweet lady!
    you just gave me an idea for my family room curtains!!! i've been searching for beading approximately 2" long to add to the bottom of my curtains as they shrunk when i washed them! beading for lamps is soo expensive! so...after seeing this, i'm going to add the beads to the edge of my curtains and "wha la" i will have the effect i've been looking for!!! thank you! sometimes you just gotta see something to light that creative spark! thank you so much for sharing!!! ps. i have a night light like your lamp! new idea for you?

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  13. Such a gorgeous room! The lamps look wonderful. I love how thrifty you were with them...even watching the ads for a sale! Thanks for sharing the wonderful tutorial, and for linking up to the Stache Party! I featured this! http://mylilpumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/2012/03/stache-party-features_30.html

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  14. very very lovely!!! Just found your adorably cute blog! Excited to be a new follower!! I'm gonna have to check out our Goodwill store...you scored big time with those!!

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  15. These are really pretty and your whole room is fabulous!

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  16. I'm having trouble with the strands bowing and not staying straight.

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  17. How did you remove the glue on the metal?

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