Throwing back to when I painted a very Gaudy Lamp

For the first time in our throwback series I no longer have what the post was about! I remember painting this little lamp, being proud of it, buying a new shade for it and using it for YEARS… I guess it just must have quit at some point as we still have the shade lol I just can’t remember what happened to the lamp. But I do know that it served us well for many years and I was really happy with how its makeover turned out.

Its pretty amazing to read back and realize how much has changed here at Grandma’s house! Here is the original post:

Paint an old lamp white for a brand new look!

I picked up this old lamp at a thrift store a LONG time ago. It sat around for years before I finally rolled up my sleeves and tackled it. I’ve seen several posts about how to “create” milk glass all over pinterest lately and I thought maybe I could pull it off here too.

I started by taking the shade off and grabbing my can of white paint that I’ve used on everything at this point. Its a flat acrylic ceiling and trim paint and, I figured, if I didn’t like the flat paint I could always add a coat of clear poly to make it shiny later.

It took five coats of paint for this lamp to totally cover.

I did a little scuffing on all of the gold and glass with a fine grit sand paper before painting it. (Note: Spray painting would have been a far better option but I have no place to spray paint here in the winter.)

Looking at the very plain white lamp base when I was finished I remembered I had a roll of twine left over from a couple of other projects and thought, “What the hell.” I really didn’t see how I had anything to lose at that point so I got to wrapping the lamp in two separate places.

I think the twine really completed it and gave it the whole new look that I was going for. In fact, now with the blue shade, I think it has a little bit of a nautical look that I really like.

The lamp shade from Walmart was about $12 and, besides that, I already had the rest of the materials so, all in, this was an incredibly cheap project and, I think for the little bit of time it took and the little bit of money in cost me, it may be my most spectacular before and after yet.

Truly, it is amazing what a little paint will do! The flat look of the paint has really grown on me too, I think it almost gives it a kiln-fired or clay quality, like an old pitcher.