Lamp Makeover With Rice Paper, Paint and Silk Flowers.

A plain white lamp and shade.  In my opinion, the best way to start a project! This lamp is clean ad needs no repairs. It was an inexpensive purchase I made a few years ago for our extra bedroom. I had been in the process of painting and throwing the room together quickly and wasn’t sure in what direction I wanted to go. So I figured buying a plain lamp and shade would enable me to change it into exactly what I wanted when the time came.

Fast forward to the present…I found a different lamp for our spare room (one that definitely needs to be made over).  So this little one now becomes a birthday present for my niece who is in the process of making over her bedroom.

I had some very pretty rice paper I knew I wanted to use on the shade. It may be a bit hard to tell from the picture but the shade had a very course texture and since I was planning on decoupaging, I thought it may absorb the glue to much to achieve a proper paper application. To give the shade a nice white base I used a mixture of half white chalk paint and half water. I used a soft paint brush occasionally dipped in extra water to get a nice even layer of paint all over the shade.

This is what it looked like after the first coat. The chalk paint and water did a great job to help smooth out most of the nooks and crannies but I still went ahead with a second coat.

For this layer I decided to use white acrylic craft paint. I wanted to tone down the chalky finish of the first layer and it really brightened up the white.

The pretty rice paper above is from Stamperia. It reminds me of my niece where as this lamp really doesn’t. So I used the paper as the inspiration for this project. Once I separated the pictures, I glued them onto the lampshade using Art Minds Decoupage Glue. The only hard part was first waiting for the paint to dry and then the glue:)

The next thing I went for was my ribbon stash. Keep your eye out for bags of miscellaneous ribbons at your local craft stores. They are usually in lengths ranging from 12″ to 1 yard at the store near me. They are great for these small projects and even gift wrapping. My niece’s room refresh is going to include grey accents so I applied this ribbon around the top and bottom with hot glue. To get  sparkle on the remainder of the shade that isn’t covered by rice paper or ribbon, I applied a glitter varnish with a soft paint brush. It was dual purpose: protection and some bling.

To continue adding softness I added some silk flowers to the shade. 

Here are the silks glued onto the shade using hot glue and backed by some silver/grey tulle to add another layer to this look.

The base already being a plain bright white made updating a snap. I added pearl beads and pink and white lace ribbon around on a few different levels using hot glue and called it a day. I didn’t want the base to compete with the work I had done on the shade and often times less is more.

I really like the way this came out and I hope my niece likes it as well. With the information I received about her room makeover, this should fit in seamlessly. 

Everything I used on this project I already had. I didn’t spend a dime.  I have learned its best to hang onto things that are essentially a blank slate and this little lamp really was. It is such a time saver when you don’t have to bring the piece you plan working on BACK to a state that is easy to work with. I love to grab items like this to have on hand just in case creativity strikes:)

Thank you for stopping by! If you have any questions about this project please reach out.

Roni♥

I hope you like this “Plain Jane” makeover.