Recovering that old bedside Lamp

Well, very excited about my first trial of recovering a lamp.

I can't remember where I got this lamp, its just been kicking around for ever and I pulled it out of some storage boxes when we returned to NZ. It had this textured red fabric which I had got very used, but was - at the end of the day - kinda ugly. So I thought it needed a new lease of life and would be a good practice run.

It currently sits by the bed so I was conscious that I wanted to cover it in a yellow, orange or red fabric to keep a warm glow to the light it emits (lets face it, who looks pretty in blue or green light?). That being said, I just couldn't help myself. I was given some fabric samples by a colleague at work and the blue one was simply crying out to be used. So whilst I may not look pretty in its glow, the lamp itself will look gorgeous. Such stunning fabric.

I didn't employ any smart and careful techniques with this. I just cut and yanked the existing fabric off the underneath roll - this one was laminated paper but could be plastic if purchased - (rembered to take the "before" shot mid-way through yanking) and then glued a line of fabric vertically to the paper shield, rolled the fabric around the lamp, glued another nicely folded-under vertical strip, tucked under to top and bottom, and glued to the metal circular surround.

What I would say in hindsight is have regard to which way you look at this lamp. For example, this one sits on a low table and therefore I will more often look "down" on it. A tall standing lamp in contrast, you are more likely to look "up" into. Make sure you have enough fabric at the top / bottom to produce a nice tidy edge when you fold the top / bottom into the middle of the lamp. If you need to prioritise one more than the other, then prioritise the most "looked at" side. I, of course, was cutting the height of the fabric a bit fine as this was a sample scrap, and then prioritised the wrong edge. The edge that looked tidier was at the bottom (prescribed by the metal framing), which never gets seen at all. The messier edge was at the top, and was looking a bit rough and ready. So, to tidy up the top and make it look a little less Craft101, I glued a thin piece of ribbon around the inside to hide the scrappy edges.

It won't win any prizes for the most masterful execution, but it looks so lovely sitting there.

I am now quite excited about making the change to a different light fitting in my sewing cave. I'll give you a before and after of that at some point because the current fitting has all that charm that our Purple Palace exudes and it really (really) has to go.