Lamp Redo: Before & After

I’m getting my feet wet with this whole thrift store shopping thing, and I’ve had some good luck so far.  Over the weekend, I found this old brass lamp for $6.00!

Before

And I turned it into this:

After

All it took was a couple coats of Krylon spray paint and a new shade, and it was like new!  I really wanted a drum shade, but I couldn’t find one that was long enough to cover the entire harp.  I might still get one eventually, or cover this one in linen.  But for now it’s fine.

Here is how I did it:

The first step is to give the lamp a good wipe-down and get all of the dirt, dust, and grimey stuff off of it, paying special attention to any nooks and crannies.  Next, I used painter’s tape to cover up any parts of the lamp that I didn’t want to spray, like the socket, switch and cord.  I actually used a plastic bag to hold the cord and then taped it closed just to make sure the whole thing was covered.

Tape over the parts you want to protect.

After my lamp was all taped up, I sprayed it with a coat of Krylon primer.  After this dried, I sprayed a couple coats of Krylon Satin Oil-Rubbed Bronze.  I let it dry overnight just to make sure the paint had set, and then put my new Target shade on it.  For now, this lamp has a home in our basement play room/living area.  (More pics to come this week.)

Paint is one of the easiest ways to transform any piece.  You may think a lamp is ugly or outdated, but you would be surprised what a coat of spray paint and a new shade will do.  It can become something totally new!

More to come tomorrow from my weekend spray paint spree!  I went Krylon-crazy.  But in a good way, of course.