Recover A Lamp Shade, Stay Sane.

OK, so I could not for the life of me find affordable lamp shades that were canary yellow like I wanted. And trust me, I SCOURED. Gr!  So, I made my own.

If you wanna roll like me, here is a little tut on how I recovered them!


First, I ordered drum lampshades from EuroStyleLighting.com. These were more affordable than anything I found at Target, for example, and they are made out of paper, so perfect for recovering.

I measured the circumference of the shade, and added a few inches to make sure the fabric got all the way around.  I added a half-inch to the width, and cut out this piece of fabric to my dimensions. Notice I pressed the one edge so that no raw fabric edge would show when completed.

OK.  Now, lay your pressed fabric out on a flat surface.  Position your lampshade at one end of the fabric, and verify that your shade is RIGHT in the middle of the fabric, with the extra half-inch on either side. THEN...

...ROLL your shade nice and easily to the other side, and make sure you still have the same amount of allowance on either side.  If it starts to roll off the fabric, straighten it out a bit, and try again.

Once you've gotten in it a good position, slowly roll it OFF of the fabric a bit, and spray the first foot or so of the fabric with spray adhesive. Mine is Elmers craft adhesive, and I got it at Micheals. Then, slowly ROLL the shade onto the tacky part of the fabric.  Now that you've rolled it on properly aligned, you can pick it up and smooth the fabric onto the shade.

Lay it down again, spray a little more, then smooth the fabric onto the shade. Once you are getting near the end, make sure and spray UNDER the little flap at the edge so when you smooth it onto the shade, the inside of the flap sticks to the fabric, and the outside sticks to the shade. You will get a very nice finished edge.

Wa-la! Beautimous!  Now to finish up the raw edge on the top and bottom.

The first time I did this, I used my glue gun, which was messy, difficult, and all around ridiculous. Then I realized that I can just use the darn spray adhesive here, too!  Duh.  Spray the exposed edge of the fabric (yes, some of the adhesive will get onto the inside of the shade, but it will dry in time), and then....

 

...fold the edge over to stick to the inside of the shade...

....and, since your nail polish is coming off anyway, as demonstrated by me in this picture, use your fingernail to smooth the fabric really close to the rounded edge of the shade to get a nice finish.





Do this 3 more times, and you have yourself a set of matching lampshades!  YEAH!




I also took pictures of the fixtures I used to hang these from track lighting, so I'll write a tut for that soon. Go for it!