This lamp had a lovely bamboo-patterned, brass-colored base, and a lovely white shade. Unfortunately, the children who liked to play in the living-room often left their signatures on the poor lamp’s shade. And by signatures, I mean dirty fingerprints and the like. Flies also liked to leave tokens of remembrance behind. Little brown ones.
Eventually the poor lamp was removed from the living-room. And the poor lamp was sad. Its shade was dirty, who would ever want it? Actually, lamps can’t be sad. But you get the picture.
One day, the lamp saw someone coming [lamps can’t actually see, either]. It was me. And although the lamp’s shade was dirty, I knew it would be perfect for me, because I had a little trick up my sleeve…
Now you know exactly what to do if you ever get a dirty lampshade. You’re welcome! If you don't like lace, though, this might not work for you. Being a guy might also affect the way you feel about doing this to your bedroom lamp. But you can always cover it with a sheer fabric in the color of you choice instead.
I used a glue gun and some thrift-shop lace to cover the outside of the lamp shade. As you can see in the below photo, I placed a line of hot glue down the seams of the shade, and then gently pressed the lace on to secure it. I did the same for the seams edging the top and bottom of the shade.
This old lamp in was a bit unsightly, but I needed a lamp for my bedroom. Typical frugal me didn't want to get a new lamp when this old one still worked perfectly, so I decided to spruce it up and hide the stains by covering it with lace.
See how in the photo below (taken while the shade was about halfway covered :P) you can see pencil marks and some random dark stains? Let's see what magic we can work on it.
After continuing this all the way around the lamp, I trimmed the excess fabric. Although it took a surprising five or so glue-sticks, it was very simple and easy to do. Much cheaper than buying a new shade, and very pretty indeed! You can see the finished shade below. None of the stains show through, and it has a super delicate and feminine look.