Project Rehab: New Leather Shade Makes a Vintage Lamp Light Up
Discover how a DIYer turned leather scraps into a chic one-of-a-kind shade
Upcycled furniture and decor add character, charm and style to many homes. They can also save money and keep materials out of the landfill. We asked readers to share their own rehab projects. As part of our ongoing Project Rehab series, we’re highlighting the transformation of a discarded lamp into a chic showpiece with a custom leather strap shade. Do you have a furniture makeover of your own? Please share it in the Comments.
The hunt: Lana Kuzmichenko found this midcentury Japanese table lamp sitting curbside among various other items discarded by students from a nearby college. With its tattered shade and damaged cord, the lamp “was in bad shape,” Kuzmichenko says. “But it had a very attractive metal base that was in good condition.”
The process: Kuzmichenko first cleaned the lamp and replaced the cord. Then she turned her attention to making a new shade. She had already acquired free leather scraps from a pet goods manufacturer and this seemed like the perfect project for them. “A leather strap shade seemed like a no-brainer for the industrial look that I wanted to achieve,” she says.
After doing some research on YouTube on how to stain leather, she concluded that Minwax penetrating stains were the way to go. After testing several different stains at saturation times of 10 seconds, 30 seconds and two minutes — and waiting five days for the stain to completely dry — she found her winner: Red Oak stain with a 30-second saturation time for more porous leather strips and up to two minutes for less porous strips. In total, Kuzmichenko stained 54 4-millimeter-wide strips over the course of three weeks, including one week for drying. Once the strips dried, she polished them with a shoe cream to soften them and to keep them from becoming stiff and cracking when she bent them to create the shade.
After doing some research on YouTube on how to stain leather, she concluded that Minwax penetrating stains were the way to go. After testing several different stains at saturation times of 10 seconds, 30 seconds and two minutes — and waiting five days for the stain to completely dry — she found her winner: Red Oak stain with a 30-second saturation time for more porous leather strips and up to two minutes for less porous strips. In total, Kuzmichenko stained 54 4-millimeter-wide strips over the course of three weeks, including one week for drying. Once the strips dried, she polished them with a shoe cream to soften them and to keep them from becoming stiff and cracking when she bent them to create the shade.
Kuzmichenko created loops at the end of the straps and secured them with brass rivets around the shade frame. For extra strength and to avoid sliding, she glued the straps at the bottom. The sturdy lamp shade now weighs more than 2 pounds.
Cost breakdown
Stains: Free from the reuse room at a local water-treatment facility
Leather: Free from a pet goods manufacturer
Brass rivets: $5.45
Rivet setter: $3.10
Foam flowers: $1.50
Leather hole punch: $2.59
Edison lightbulb: $6
Lamp cord: $6
Stains: Free from the reuse room at a local water-treatment facility
Leather: Free from a pet goods manufacturer
Brass rivets: $5.45
Rivet setter: $3.10
Foam flowers: $1.50
Leather hole punch: $2.59
Edison lightbulb: $6
Lamp cord: $6
The final touch: After three weeks of staining and fashioning leather straps to create the shade, there was one final addition needed to make the lamp just right. “It looked very masculine to me,” Kuzmichenko says, “so I added a pair of foam plumeria flowers to the shade to soften the look.”
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Project: Midcentury Japanese table lamp with new leather strap shade
Who did it: Lana Kuzmichenko
Location: San Francisco
Cost: $24.64
Time: About two months