Petal Ruffle Lamp Tutorial

Do you have a boring lampshade that doesn't match your room? In need of some ruffles? Can't find a lampshade that will work in your space? That was my problem. I have been looking for white drum shades for my bedroom lamps but none were found that I felt were affordable. I had nothing to lose by trying out a lampshade makeover so it all started.
Earlier in the month I had spray painted the bases of my outdated lamps with a harvest gold spray paint. Once the lamps were painted the beige shades looked terrible and I knew that I needed white shades. This idea really goes back to art projects in first grade when I learned about using a pencil to glue pieces of tissue paper to a paper plate cut to look like a wreath.

I folded pieces of white cotton fabric and ironed them into rectangles, then cut them down into squares. The size of the circles you cut out really depends on the look you want. My circles are about 2.5 inches across. No need to trace and carefully cut out the circles unless you want to. Just cutting them close to a circle shape works fine.

I applied a layer of fabric glue to one section at a time.

Then it is time to take a pencil, chopstick, or whatever object you would like and fold a circle over the end like the picture below shows.

Then you take that circle and apply it to an area with glue. You can spread them out to your liking. I placed them fairly close to provide almost complete coverage of the original shade.

You just keep working until you have it finished. It is a slow poke project but not difficult.

My husband seemed to approve of the frills. I finished his lampshade first and he is enjoying that while mine is yet to be ruffled, or he is at least tolerating it for my sake. I think mostly he was happy to have a shade over the bare bulb again!

The lamp looks absolutely beautiful when it is lit!

This would be a great project done with a color or print fabric too. I think they would look especially sweet in a little girl's room or in a nursery.

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