Help a sistah out.

I have got to do something with this atrocity.

Normally I wouldn’t do this.  Normally I’d be too embarrassed to admit that I’ve lived with this lamp on this little table in this state for 2 years.  Normally I would never confess to actually LIKING this lamp after I sprayed it a soft platinum and decoupage tissue paper all over the shade.  Normally I would rather wait until after I flub up the redo to post such awfulness.  BUT, these are dire circumstances.

I’ve been thinking about lamps a lot lately.  I’ve seen some awesome lamp redos around blogland and I am jealous.  These redos have caused me to rethink what I once thought was cool.  Like this.  

Now, what was I thinking??

Here is a list of just a few things that are oh so wrong with this lamps:

1. The shade.
2. The shade is so tissue papered in some spots that it doesn’t let light through.
3. And so not tissue papered in other spots that the light SCREAMS through.
4. The colors are wrong, all wrong.  
5. The style is wrong, all wrong.
6. The room has no overhead light and the shade doesn’t allow enough light through.
7. Did I mention the shade?  Here look again:

Awful.

So, in my defense:

1. I’d never redone a shade before when I did this one.  
2. I generally rush into things with little or no planning.  That was the case here, too.  
3. Wait, did I say “in my defense?”  I’d make a horrible lawyer.  I guess I meant, “This is my problem and why many of my projects are fails.”  
4. Anyway, I just kept layering and mod podging and in the end I thought, hey, that’s pretty cool.  So I did another one:

Oh, geez.  

Again, what was I thinking?

Why didn’t I do some research first?  Why did I look at some table lamps, like these, to give me inspiration?  (Gosh I like this one, in particular.  And I wonder if I could make something that looks like this?)  Why didn’t I gather how-to’s and advice from other DIY-ers?  I mean, check out this super cute idea from How Does She?  Or these very elegant looks I found at Creations by Kara.

Alas, what’s done is done.  I can’t undecoupage.  But I CAN give them a whole new, updated look.

When I first put these out, our room had no plan, no style and no color.  After we added curtains, the colors became a muted robin’s egg blue with some gold and burnt orange tones.  So these guys?  

They need a change.  It’s time.

AND SO:

I need your help.  I’m appealing to your sense of style and your amazingly great ideas.  That’s what this bloggy thing is all about, right?  To connect and share, right?  Give me ideas.  I really need them.  If you could help in any way, if you know what kind of material to use to MAKE a lampshade, if you know how to decorate a lampshade, if you have a favorite lampshade makeover you’ve happened across, I beg you to leave a comment.

My living room will thank you.