Sassafras Salvation: A Very Feminine Lamp

The biggest part of Sassafras Salvation is re-doing furniture and home decor to give old pieces new life. I love finding something that someone else only wanted to get rid of and making it over into something beautiful and useful. Here's an example of that.

The lamp was boring. Plain black. Otherwise perfectly good. In fact, not really an old lamp at all. I later decided that it was donated to Good Sam because the little thingy on top of the harp had broken off and the lamp's previous owner didn't know it was a simple thing to fix. ('Course, it's entirely possible that they just really were tired of that lamp.....!) It came without a shade.

I spray painted the base in Krylon's Brushed Metallic Spray Paint in Satin Nickel, and replaced the harp with one that had a perfectly good thingy. (I wish I knew the name for that piece, but it's the part that has a screw tip to screw the finial onto.) This spray paint is like a little magic. I heart this spray paint. It made this lamp so gorgeous. I hope whoever took this little beauty to the thrift store reads this blog and cries themselves to sleep with regret. Or, even better, I hope they spot it on Craigslist and absolutely have to have it, and end up paying for the same (sort of the same, anyway) lamp twice!! (Cue my evil laugh!)

I am always on the lookout for a great little lampshade, and I found this one:

Isn't it a horrible pattern and a great shape? I primed this little sucker until you couldn't see that orange and gold awfulness. I suppose there will be some that think that it's such a cool vintage 60s or 70s print. That's because it was before their time. If you lived through it, like me, not so much. That print had to go!

Then, I went shopping. At Joann's I found a sheer fabric - the kind that you'd use for sheer window curtains. It was a delicate dusky pink, shot through with silver threads and at intervals, tiny little clear sequins. I bought four yards. Back at home, I used my quilt guide, rotary cutter, and cutting mat to cut even strips of three inches. I ran a gathering stitch down the center of each of those strips, and gathered them tightly.

Holding the lampshade between my knees, and with the hot glue gun at the ready, I started attaching the ruffled strips of sheer pink to the now-dry primed lampshade. I went slowly and carefully, getting the strips on straight and keeping them even. It seemed to take forever, but I finally got it done - though not before burning myself good with the hot glue. I manage to do that Every. Single. Time. *sigh*

It was worth it. Here's the finished lamp. Isn't it beautiful and feminine? It would be so right in a feminine living room, a pretty guest room, or a little princess's room.