Lampshade Fix

I don't like to throw anything away. I mean, anything. I figure there might be a use for something down the road or someone else might need it. This is all much to my husband's (well, really my entire family's) chagrin. Case in point: I have stacks and stacks of fabric scraps that I just knew I would use someday, and ta-da! One day I decided to put them on a lampshade.

I simply cut the fabric in long strips in varying widths, long enough to cover the bottom rim of the shade by about 2 inches and about 1/2 inch to turn over at the top of the shade. Because I just had scraps of fabric, the strips aren't all the same widths or lengths, but that only adds to the fun of it!

Then I used a glue gun (sparingly) all along the length of the fabric, from the top of the shade to the bottom.

Some of the fabric strips were glued to the lampshade, others to the other pieces of fabric, depending on which pieces I chose to feature more prominently.

I trimmed all of the edges of the fabric with pinking sheers for a whimsical finish.

I had some ric rac lying around and decided to apply it to another lampshade. I applied hot glue to the bottom of the shade and ran the ric rac around it and then cut it to size, which, with a round lampshade, is more accurate than cutting the ribbon first. Then I did the same for the top of the shade. To make ric rac dots, I cut a small section (about 1/2 inch), then balled it up and sort of hot glued it to itself until it made a pom-pom shape. Then I hot glued several of those in a random pattern around the shade.

Switching out lampshades is an easy, inexpensive way to change the look of your room quickly. Both of the shades shown here were purchased at Lowe's. Most home stores sell shades and lamp bases separately so you can mix and match. For more lampshade ideas, check out Eddie Ross' blog, where he paints some shades for a beautiful effect.

Just make sure you don't throw anything away...you never know when you're going to need it for a project like this!