I Did a Craft!

I’m not the craftiest of people, you see.

But I was inspired to do a craft in the process of writing about DIY decorating ideas. It gave me an excuse to do something with this vintage floor lamp I’ve had probably for 15 years, which has been naked like this for the whole time:

Enough designer friends convinced me that it would be easy to buy a plain lamp shade and spruce it up. First, Dana Tydings suggested using wallpaper on the inside of the shade, but I completely failed on that count. When I found myself multiplying the shade’s diameter by pi, and the measurements were still coming out wrong, I knew I was too far over my head.

But then designer Sally Steponkus told me that simply wrapping trim around the top and bottom would suffice — with only a pair of scissors and a little glue. That sounded more up my alley.

Ta da! I got everything I needed from my dearly beloved Bruce Variety in Bethesda: anti-fray cream for the rope trim, glue and the trim itself. I took the light into Lamps Unlimited in McLean for the shade. They also told me that the socket was all bad and I risked an imminent fire, so they fixed that right up for me. AND I found the beautiful finnial which has the same colors as my living room.

Designer Raji Radhakrishnan mentioned that I should also use the trim down the seam of the shade, which would look unfinished without it. So here’s the final image:

So, I’m sure if you asked Martha, she would offer multiple suggestions on improvements. But my little craft project makes the living room SO much more inviting, and I just sat on the sofa last night and smiled.