Have you found a great lamp base with an ugly shade at a thrift store? I did, for ten bucks. The base is great, but the shade has seen better days.
One support was broken, leaving the shade lopsided. The bright teal, stained pleated fabric shade wasn’t doing it for me either.
So, I took the shade, er, matters into my own hands. We had a small scrap of canvas left over from sewing a drop cloth curtain for our laundry room. It was perfect. Neutral and free! I set to work on transforming the lampshade. While my iron was heating up, I ripped all the teal fabric off.
I measured the circumference and height of my shade and cut a piece of canvas slighty larger, keeping one finished edge of the dropcloth. Using iron on tape, I hemmed the edges to fit.
I clipped the extra fabric from the corners to cut bulk.
Now I was ready to start on the shade. To cover the shade, first I taped my unfinished edge in place.
Wrap the fabric around the shade, smoothing out along the way. Tape the finished end in place and in a few other places, just to prevent movement. Hot glue the unfinished edge to the shade. 
Run a thin bead of hot glue between the edge of the lampshade and the fabric. Press down to secure.
When you reach the finished edge, hot glue in place. I was almost finished with my shade. I still had to fix the broken support. I dug a bamboo skewer out of the drawer and cut it to fit in the shade. Then, I added a dollop of hot glue to the shade to secure the skewer. Worked like a charm!
I popped the shade on the base and it looked like a million bucks. And we finally have a lamp for the basement bedroom.
Of course, there are tons of options to update a lampshade, like dye, ribbon or coffee filters, to name a few. Have you updated an old shade? Maybe you’ve transformed a thrift store lamp or two? We’d love to see your ideas, so share a link, too.
P.S. I turn a quarter of a century old today, maybe I’ll have some b-day goodies to share with you…
Monique
/ April 6, 2011Happy Birthday! Hope you have a wonder day celebrating! Love the lamp redo…simple and elegant. Are you sure you want to leave the lamp in the basement? It’s just too cute.
Jenn
/ April 6, 2011Happy Birthday!!
Megan
/ April 6, 2011Happy Birthday!!
Lamps are my favorite thing to redo- I have done a few:
http://refinddesign.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-dream-of-jeannie-lamp-for-sale.html
http://refinddesign.blogspot.com/2010/11/dannys-back.html
http://refinddesign.blogspot.com/2010/10/huge-lamp-not-for-sale.html
Love yours – so clean and fresh.
Hilary @ My So-Called Home
/ April 6, 2011Happy Birthday! The lamp is very cute, and so simple.
andrea p
/ April 6, 2011Happy birthday Amanda! We are the same age!
Hope you have a fabulous day & I love the new lamp! Great transformation as always
Jenn(ifer)
/ April 6, 2011Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!!!!!
Thanks for all the inspiration, looking forward to all you do in the next year of your life.
I have a lamp project going on as well, unfortunately not ready to linkt o jet…
Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog
/ April 6, 2011Happy birthday!
Love the lamp
.
Ashley @ DesignBuildLove.co
/ April 6, 2011SOOOOOO much better! LOVE it! I need to try that on a lamp shade that I am NOT loving and having a hard time finding a replacement for. Only problem is that it’s the cone shape.
I’ll try to modify this!
ourhumbleabowed
/ April 6, 2011Thanks for the birthday wishes and kind words about the lamp!
Ashley, if you roll your shade on to your fabric and trace the lines (leaving a 1/2 extra fabric), this should work perfectly for a cone shaped shade. You’ll probably have to cut small pieces out of the 1/2 allowance so you don’t have bulk, but it’s worth a shot, right? Good luck!
Amanda
Robin Grey
/ April 6, 2011I have a lamp that I despirately want to update the shade of and I so love this tutorial. I’m worried about the hot glue on the shade getting warm though. Have you left it on a while? Was the glue OK or does it get soft? Thanks!
Robin
ourhumbleabowed
/ April 6, 2011Hi Robin,
The hot glue hasn’t been a problem, but we also use CFL bulbs, so they don’t get as hot as an incandescent. And, I only applied hot glue at the overlapping seams and along the top and bottom of the shade, so it’s not entirely covered. I think you should be totally fine with a CFL and a little hot glue at the edges. If this works, we’d love for you to share your before and after on our Facebook page.
Happy lamp revamping!
Amanda
Joy
/ April 6, 2011A very clearly written and photographed tutorial. Looks great. Thanks.
- Joy
Erin@His & Hers
/ April 6, 2011Happy birthday! Gotta love thrift store finds!
ourhumbleabowed
/ April 6, 2011Thanks, Joy and Erin! Glad you like it
A
Kendra
/ April 6, 2011Happy birthday! It’s my birthday today too! Hope you had a great one. I happened upon your blog (don’t quite remember how…Young House Love? Hmmm…) Anyway, your design and ideas are great!
ourhumbleabowed
/ April 7, 2011Thank you, Kendra! Happy birthday to you as well!
Nicole
/ April 7, 2011Hope you had a great birthday Amanda! Love the new lamp!
Meredith
/ April 8, 2011Happy Birthday!
I’m stopping by from the weekend wrap up party. Love how the lamp turned out!
sommer
/ April 9, 2011This turned out wonderfully! So much better than the blue lol. I haven’t had much luck finding any drum shades at our good will. I’m still searching =) I would be thrilled to have you share this at my VIP party this weekend =) http://designergarden.blogspot.com/2011/04/vip-party-10.html