The lamp shade of awesomeness
Because of the falling-through-the-ceiling guy (that brilliant story here) our house has been in a state of disarray. Insulation covers the land round about. Extensively covers the land round about.
He fell through on July 30.
The ceiling has been patched.
And painted.
They sent someone to clean the house on August 17th.
Except that he showed up with no cleaning supplies and the idea that it would only take an hour. Turns out that he’s one of the insulation installers for the company and NOT an official cleaning guy.
*rawr*
*grumble*
*blah*
But enough of that.
He left after two hours.
Which means there’s still a whole lot of house left to clean.
So I’m having a party. I’ve invited The Hello Dolly group of wonderful people to come to our house this Friday. Which is technically tomorrow. I’m all sorts of nowhere near ready for them to come. I figured I would have the house “party ready” by Friday. It could still happen.
With nothing else to do, I decided to complete a project.
HaH!
Remember that lamp–the future project? It’s the now project.
–I wanted to find a barrel shade–didn’t happen. I ended up using a lampshade I already had. I liked the shape a little better. (The one pictured has been set aside.)
–I wanted to update the brass (love the shape of the stand, though).
I chose this color–Oil Rubbed Bronze–to paint it with–it’s beautiful. I didn’t want black and this worked perfectly. The Handsome-Dude did the painting. He’s spectacular like that. Not kidding.
That’s the new and improved base. Easy. Especially if you have the Handsome-Dude paint it. (I almost typed “expecially” just to see if anyone would comment.)
You’ll notice that the lampshade is sectioned–there are six sections. I used a piece of paper to make a pattern and quickly discovered that none of the sections were identical. Not a problem. I just laid the material (the printed burlap I found) on the shade and cut the pieces out.
Note to self: don’t use burlap to make a lampshade again. The fibers are annoying and can be easily snorked up your nose when you make any exasperated noises. Not easy to clean up (vacuum, then use a damp cloth to get the tiny little friends completely off of the table–not out of your nose–just off of the table–though I suppose it would work).
Voila! The first glued section.
About the glue. It’s likely that someone makes a specific glue for gluing patterened burlap to a six-sided lampshade, but I opted to use one of the 56 glue variations I already had on hand.
Uhm. Did anyone do that when you were a kid? Smear a glob of glue on your hand–wait for it to dry–commence peeling? (Not talking paste. We ate that stuff. I’m talking glue.) No one got into trouble for doing that, huh? Me either.
fyi–this glue is no good for the hand-glue-peel stuff
Here’s what I opted to use. I liked the “permanent adhesive part” as well as the “fast grab & quick dry.” Almost 1/4 of the bottle had been used. The remaining 3/4’s almost, almost completed the entire project. I used hot glue (low melt kind) for the final 6″ of trim.
I didn’t want much of an overlap between the six pieces–too much bulk.
I decided to make my own trim.
I needed:
–six pieces to cover the seams
–one long one for the top of the shade
–one slightly longer piece for the bottom
I measured and then cut the strips of burlap (fibers a-flying) and then ironed them. Yes. I ironed them. It smelled a little bit like a barn does when it rains. Wet hay and feed–because I steamed them. Burlap on the ironing board. A thin piece of cotton over that. And steam the fabric. It made for very crisp edges. (Easier to glue.)
Yes. I am aware that this particular picture may not help a single, solitary one of you. I am at the ready to delete it at a moment’s notice. ~grin~
I made the trim longer than it needed to be simply because it would be easy to cut it to size on the shade.
Now the only thing missing is the top trim. (This is when I ran out of the glue I started with.)
And this is the finished lamp. I like it. Thankfully I like it. Things don’t always turn out–but this one did.
Did I tell you that the insulation guys are coming on Friday? Not to the party. ~smile~ They’re coming to finish the insulation job. They have 1/2 of the attic to complete. They are coming at 3:30. In the afternoon. Party’s at 7:00. Puh-lenty of time.
Of course there will be no incident to report. It’s statistically improbable–impossible–for something to happen again.
I still need to clean the house.
Maybe I could enlist some help.
I shall change into my fluffy dress and make the call.
And of course–a little dancing.
In the kitchen.
As usual.
what do you think?