Sunday, July 22, 2012

Never Spray Paint a Lampshade

Like most DIY bloggers, I love to show off my successful projects, so I guess it's only fair that I also admit my failures.

Yesterday, Doug and I found a really cool old glass lamp in a thrift store for $3:


The top had a vintage-looking green ceramic knob, which reminded me of my vintage green table:


The shade was fabric with eight panels.  I immediately had visions of alternating pastels to match my four wood chairs--two each of lavender, light blue, yellow, and pink. Here is the before--I was so excited that I already had started taping it off with frog tape when I remembered to snap the picture:


And I was really proud of how well my taping worked:


Until I plugged the lamp in and turned it on:


The pink, blue, and lavender were OK--the light kind of flowed through them. But for some reason, the yellow didn't "take" evenly, and it looks all splotchy when the light shines through it.  I tried retaping and repainting just the two yellow panels, but it didn't get any better.

Doug thinks we can somehow rescue it with stencils or a backing to block the light from showing the imperfections.

I think it's time to move on and look for another shade.

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