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Trash To Treasure

My New Old Lamps

18 years ago

I re-did my old lamps I've had for 20 years...and that I bought at a yard sale....but all the new ones are out of my budget for now and the ones I liked look just like my old ones. I had to throw the shades away after all this time, so I bought some black rustoleum spray paint, and two new lamp shades, and got "new" lamps for about $32 dollars. I think I'll start checking out the yard sales and thrift stores for new lamps and hope I find some really nice ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kudzu's Blog

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Comments (5)

concretenprimroses
18 years ago
They are perfect! Who needs new ones?
Yours are probably better quality than many around today anyway.
kathy
ps nice blog, it was fun to look at your projects
Daisy7
18 years ago
Owww what a great idea! I have some that I dearly love. Over the years the finish has worn away and they have tarnished badly.

Were your metal? Couldn't find a pic on your site. Did you have to do anything to them first to make the paint stick?
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I agree the lamp is just stunning. It may be the angle that you took the pic from, but the current shade does seem too large, as it seems to hide a good part of the base. Can you take a pic from further back to show us? It may just need a taller harp. Do you have a good lighting store that you can take the base to, to have them help and try different shape and size shades? I recently bought some antique ginger jar lamps, and re-did them to use on my mantel. It was a challenge to find the shades that I needed, but a great lighting shop in Portland, ME truly helped out. I ended up re-making the lamps a second time to have the shades work, but I'm sure you won't need to do that with yours. Mine started like this - And ended up like this - And you can't see from that pic, but the shade is oval, and look at the great finials I found there! I wouldn't have been able to try many shades online, and never knew that I'd find a perfect oval without the experts' help.
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Oh, I feel your pain. My cat jumped on a table in the lr to look out the window (early in the morning, pleated shades down). She knocked over the lamp, broke the finial and the Kraft paper shade shattered all over the place. Just the shade was over $50 to replace. Wanted to strangle her!!!! Have you tried Home Goods, TJ or Marshalls? I often see great lamps there for little money. Here's another alternative for you from Crate and Barrel. Probably too expensive, though if they have an outlet near you (they do near me), it might be worth checking out. Here is a link that might be useful: Crate and Barrel lamp
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kudzukween
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for the nice comments, and thanks Concreteprimroses. They are really expensive metal lamps, but I'm not going to polish brass..lol..so I spray painted them black, which matches a lot of things in my living room now. These are really heavy lamps.Rub them down with some steel wool to give some tooth for the paint to stick to. This should be the right page the lamps are on, on an older post.Check out my blog here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kudzu's Blog
sunnyca_gw
18 years ago
I saw the lamps on your website &. they look great. Also today saw the sheets you bought for curtains & i love them. Will look great with the sofa covers.Post pics went finished with them!! Thanks, Jan
kudzukween
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Jan! I got 2 windows finished, and 2 side panels for the 3rd window, but not the valances. I'm crafting for a sale Saturday, and sewing for the living room at the same time! I'd gotten some gold fabric with burgandy embroidered diamonds at a yard sale, with some gold trims, that I wanted to make lamp shades for the buffet lamps, but I've mis-placed it. Of course if I go out and buy some more, I'll find the one I lost! Here is one window finished.

Here is a link that might be useful: my living room curtains made from sheets

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