Monday, August 23, 2010

Let there be LIGHT

Once upon a time we had a lamp that was just too boring. So I fixed it. I'm going to make a flowered lampshade, I thought to myself. And the rest was history. It was quick, easy and totally affordable!

The previous day I had been to Anthropologie and seen some fabulous lampshades, but at a steep price. I always seem to look at things and I say I could make that for half the price. Well, my friends, I made this for MORE than half the price of the Anthro lamp! Sure, I'm no professional, and it's not pristinely sewn silk fabric, but it's pretty darn close (: Regardless, here is my inspiration. This one is a hand-painted shade with fabric flowers applied on top. Lovely.

Here's how to make a more affordable one:
You'll need hot glue, whatever color flowers you desire, a lamp shade and about an hour's time. I ran to Michael's and got 2 packages of flowers to make sure I had enough to cover the entire lampshade. Since the colors for my apartment's family room is primarily turquoise, I decided to stick with that and keep the majority of the flowers in that color palette. I also wanted to pop a few accent colors throughout, to bring in the accent colors that will be seen through pillows, vases and art work. Enter yellow, orange and purple flowers. Here's the trick: to make sure I spaced the accent colors over the lampshade evenly, I hot-glued those flowers down first. Then I filled in the rest of the shade with the turquoise flowers working from the top to the bottom to make sure the layering was consistant. To add more texture, I used varied sizes and shapes of the paper flowers.
For those wondering, I spent $18 on the lamp from target, and $12 on paper flowers from Michael's.
This will be going in our family room, but I think it'd be the perfect fit for any age girls' room! It's so easy and especially perfect, because you have the ability to customize it according to the color and look of the space!
While I was sitting on the garage floor glueing about 100 flowers on the shade, I was thinking if was either going to look really cheap or really chic. Upon finishing, I have to say, I think it's sophisticated, fun, quirky and gives any room a little needed personality. Questions? Just e-mail me!
I also used the same flowers in this project as I did on my You Are My Sunshine project!


Love and Lamps for a Fraction of the Price,

13 comments

  1. So adorable!! I actually did a very similar project that I am posting about later this week, but with a mirror!!

    Thanks for the Follow by the way!

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  2. Oh awesome! I can't wait to see it!

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  3. Oh, my goodness.... I love the shade!
    I want one! Ha ha
    Have a wonderful weekend and Thank you
    for sharing!
    Leticia

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  4. First of all, it's very rare that I find someone who spells "Michaela" the way you do (the traditional way!). My younger daughter's name is Michaela. :)

    I love the texture and whimsy of your lamp. It's so much fun! Thank you so much for linking up to my party. :) Have a great day!

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  5. No way! I've always loved my name because it's so unique, but it's great to find someone with the same name AND spelling, in this case. My mom always says "it's the traditional way to spell it, I don't understand why people can't get it right". Haha (:

    Thanks Amanda, hope you have a great day, too!

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  6. I love your fun spirit and how you show it off in your room! :)

    Its so much fun to make things we find in the "spensive" stores isn't it? :-)

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  7. Ahhh, how fun! Loving the polka dot flowers!

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  8. How fun is this? What a neat idea! I love the polka dot flowers. ;)

    Thank you for joining my Friday link party! Hope to see you back next week!

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  9. How fun! Love the pops of yellow with the blue.

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  10. That's an adorable lamp shade! Good job!

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Thank you for stopping by! If you have a specific question, please email me at hello@michaelanoelledesigns.com. I always reply to emails! Have a blessed day! xoxo

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