New To Me Lamps Part 2

After I got the bases of my $4.99 each goodwill lamps finished it was time to tackle the shades. The problem with the shades is that they were yellowed, cracked and aged.


In addition to that they were a sheer cream and not what I had in mind for our bedroom.  The first problem that I ran into however is that I could not find the thin plastic material that lines the inside of lamp shades anywhere! I looked online, I looked at craft stores and I called lighting stores. The consensus was that I would have to send the shades out to have the thin plastic stuff added. I absolutely refused to do that given that I only paid $4.99 for the entire lamp! So my next option was to nix the thin plastic and just use fabric. After all there are many lamps that don't use that thin plastic stuff at all.

Having seen a lot of black and white shades on other lamps that I loved and refused to pay for, I knew just the fabric that I wanted. So I headed to Jo-Ann's Fabric with my trusty 50% coupon which always proves to be pointless, does anybody else have this problem? You walk into the store prepared to use the coupon but of course you can't because they put everything on sale for less than the coupon and you can't use your coupon on sale items. I really think Jo-Ann's is shady on that front. They send you a 50% coupon to get you in the store and then they have all of the items that you need on sale for 30% off, which of course means you can't use your 50% off coupon. I literally roamed the store looking for anything worth owning that I could use my coupon for...you know what I ended up getting? A glue gun. You know how much I saved? $1.50. I highly dislike Jo-Ann's for that, they aren't fooling anybody with their shady business practices. I let the checkout guy know (just to vent a bit) that I was on to them and that it's much easier to shop at Hobby Lobby for fabric. I told him that Hobby Lobby is so easy to follow, if it's not on sale this week, it's on sale next week. They don't play the coupon games. He agreed! My mother gave me a great suggestion, she said next time that I'm in that dilemma that I should by a book on decor/crafting etc. I will definitely do that next time.

Anyway, so I bought some fabric that I loved for 30% off.

 The ladies at the store were quite helpful in offering me info on how to cover my shade. They said it would be pretty easy, start at the top, attach the fabric and then flip the shade over. Easy enough right? Not so much. As I began to rip out the cracked plastic interior, this happened:

and then this:

Clearly the kind ladies thought that this old lamp shade had more bones than it did, and I at the time in the store didn't realize that it didn't. What this image basically says is there will be no flipping because the only "frame" is a top ring and a bottom ring. So my next thought is what to do what to do. I then ask Chris if he could get a wire hanger and cut two sticks to size. He gets the bolt cutters, cuts two sticks and I proceed to bend the ends and affix them to the rings:

Not great but I think it will do. So after prepping my fabric:

It was time to try to affix it to the rings. This was definitely a challenge because for one, I have never done this before so I didn't quite know what I was doing. I also should have used more than just two wires for more stability. However, with Chris jumping in to assist during my occasional crap, ugh, whine moments I was able to successfully complete the shades:

Now are they a little baggy? Yes. Do I care? Not even a little! Just so that you can see the difference, here is a before

 and after:

Now I would call that a great success. Though I had to say goodbye to the beautiful blue, I got the look that I wanted for our bedroom. We both love the new lamps! Yay to me!!!!

Tatum

I'm linking to Teach Me Stuff Tuesday!, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday! , Twice Owned Tuesday
Show and Share Day, Air your Laundry Friday 
Frugal Fridays @The Shabby Nest and 20 Below at Christina's Adventures 
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