Pretty Girl

I have been holding this post in reserve for a little while now.  It really was almost the first thing I did, after starting Sassafras Salvation.  I made some mistakes along the way, which, of course, is the way I often learn.  And I learned some things, which I'll share with you.

I found the lamp at a local thrift shop, the Good Samaritan.  I love Good Sam and shop there regularly. Seems like I can always find something, and lots of times I find lots of somethings.  At least once, I left Good Sam with a pickup load of treasures.  Truly.  It's fun and exciting to know that I have so many cool projects in my future.

This lamp was outdated.  Out.  Dated.  Oh, my.  I'm pretty sure it didn't sell at Grandma's estate sale.  No one wanted it, and it ended up at Good Sam, one step short of the landfill.  It's the land of misfit furnishings.  It had no shade, but I could see that it had fine bones and solid structure.  In short, it had possibilities.  I think I paid $2.50 for it.

I started by unscrewing the hardware.  That's all a lamp is, usually -- a strung-together grouping of hardware held together with screw sections.  So I unscrewed the lamp and laid out the pieces in a row.  There were a lot of pieces of all sizes.  I was very careful to lay them out in order and then take pictures.  It's nice to have the pictures to show you what I did, but my primary reason was so that could later refer to the pics and would know how to re-assemble the lamp at the end of the process.  Here it is, all strung out on the kitchen floor:

After I took the pictures, I got a couple of zip lock bags and put away the tiny pieces.  It's so easy, when there are so many little pieces, to lose a couple........ and that would just undo a project almost before it got off the ground.

The next thing I did was to carefully sand all of the brass parts.  It didn't take long.  I just roughed them up a little so paint would stick.

My intent was to simply spray paint all of the lamp parts so that they would have a cohesive look.  I wanted a softer, more feminine color, because of the filigree on this lamp base.  I had a can of the Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2x  spray paint that I had used on the deck furniture project, in Strawflower.  Left over paint?  I already spent the money.  This way, I didn't have to spend more.  This project just kept getting better and better.

I sprayed it all with primer and followed with a coat of the strawflower.  It took the paint very well.  I made a pretty bad misstep in all of this, however.  I should have washed the filigree pieces.  The half that had spent two decades upside down had no problems, but the one that was cupped upward?  It was home to webby dust and it also had a coat of solid dust.  I don't know what I was thinking, but you probably know what spray paint does to dust.  It was a mess, and I had to go back and fix things up before I could re-assemble the lamp.  I was kicking myself too hard to take pictures, so there are no shots of the mistake or the subsequent correction.  Sorry about that.  But here's the base, painted and re-assembled:

I always have an eye open for a nice drum lampshade, and I found a silk one in perfect condition.  I was so tickled.  I knew it would be perfect for this lamp.  I embellished it with some felt flowers and wooden beads, and it was the perfect hat for this tall elegant lady.

 Despite the problems with dust, she sure turned out pretty!  What do you think?

I'm linking up at
Today's Creative Blog
Savvy Southern Style
Tip Junkie
Under the Table and Dreaming
Miss Mustard Seed

Love, Sass

P.S. I haven't been paid by anyone for anything I said or did in this post.  I only include references to names, brands, and colors in case you have questions.