I’ve had the same plain floor lamp for as long as I can remember and while I love the actual lamp itself I’ve not really been liking the shade. I bought the lamp from Ikea years ago (so long ago that they don’t sell it anymore!), it has a fold out hinge so you can move the light around without disturbing the stand which I find perfect for reading under in the evenings. The shade that came with it was cream and seemed to pick up dirt and dust really quickly and forever looked a bit grubby which I really didn’t like so I decided that I would make it into something that I did like. I have to issue an apology now because I don’t have any proper “before” pictures except for this one where you can see the lamp in the corner behind my chair…
The first thing I did was to wash and dry the shade after removing it from the stand. I scrubbed it off in the kitchen sink with dish soap and a scrubbing-brush which seemed to remove most of the dirt and dust. I left it overnight to dry off.
The next morning I decided that I was going to either paint it with acrylic paint or attempt to dye it. As I was running low on paints I figured I’d have a go at dying it. I had some leftover semi permanent hair colours in yellow, orange and pink shades so watered them down a bit. I then began applying the dye in bands around the shade with a paint brush.
I started with the yellow then worked my way down to orange before finishing with the pink. I left it to dry overnight again before rinsing off any residue in the sink. The colours blended together a bit and they faded down once rinsed and dried off again but I was happy with the outcome.
I then decided to add a beaded fringe so raided my bead collection for suitable beads
I decided to use small pony beads and finish the fringe off with small brass bells. I measured the circumference of the shade at its widest end, marked 1 inch sections and marked with a small pencil mark then, working from the inside rim, used a needle and thread to puncture a hole where I wanted the fringe to be. I added beads then a bell before passing the needle back through the beads and back through the hole I had made, then moved on to the next 1 inch mark before repeating. I worked this way, all around the rim before tying off and completing. Once finished I reattached the shade to the lamp.
What do you think of my handiwork? What other uses do you think hair dye has?
This is amazing! How did you think of this. So creative – smart idea.
Thank you!!! I’d already used hair dye on my floor lamp and thought that the dye might be good for these too!!! Xxx