6 Easy Steps to Cover a Lamp Shade

Hey everyone – I want to quickly introduce to you a new contributor, Valerie, from The Caldwell Project!  She is adorable and an amazing interior design!  Some of my favorite posts from her are HERE, HERE and HERE!  I’ll quickly have her tell you a little bit about her and her blog:

“The Caldwell Project began as an outlet to share our home remodel with our friends and family, but as a SAHM I was always finding fun things to make or DIY. With all the things I was building and creating, people would tell me that I should share those, so along with our remodel I started sharing all of my creative projects too! 

As time went by, our remodel showed me how much I love to design and decorate a space, and it grew into a passion for interior design. I am happiest when I have a room at my fingertips and love to help a friend or family member so I can continue to grow, learn, and share. 

Now, I’m constantly looking for ways to show and build my creativity and knowledge, and to help others gain inspiration. So, along with my husband and two daughters (and another girl on the way) we’d love to share it all with you!”

I love custom touches in a room and one great way to do that is to cover your own lamp shade. By covering your own shade you have unlimited choices for whatever look you are going for.

You’ll want to start with a round drum shade and a great fabric. Make sure the shade you are choosing is the same diameter on top and bottom, otherwise you will have a more difficult time rolling your fabric onto your shade.

Step 1: Find the placement of your fabric.

Layout your fabric to find which direction and where you want your pattern to end up on your shade. Cut about six inches out from either side of the shade all the way across the fabric.

 

Step 2: Place and attach the first portion of your fabric.

Line up the edge of your fabric on the seam of the shade.

Roll the shade out and put spray adhesive on the first few inches of the fabric (indicated in red).

Roll the shade back and press fabric onto shade. Give it a good rub to make sure it sticks well.

Step 3: Attach the rest of the fabric.

With the shade rolled out all the way to the attached edge, begin spraying the fabric with your adhesive a little bit at a time as you roll the shade onto the fabric. Keep the fabric nice and tight so you don’t get any wrinkles as it goes onto the shade. When you get to the end you’ll have some excess. Cut the excess to double the seam width of the original shade seam. For my shade that was about 1 ½″.

Step 4: Attach your seam.

Use hot glue along the folded edge of your fabric and fold itself over onto the glue. Then, lay that flat and glue down the new seam. I try to make sure that the new seam matches up evenly with the old seam. That way when the light is turned on you don’t have two seams showing.

 

Step 5: Measure and cut your edges.

Measure the seam at the edge of your shade. Double that amount and mark it on the inside of the fabric all the way around the shade on both edges. Cut on your marks to eliminate the excess fabric.

 

Step 6: Fold and glue edges.

Fold the fabric hanging off of the edges of the shade in half. They should still be tacky from your original spray adhesive. Do this all the way around the shade on both sides.

 

Fold the edges over the shade and use hot glue to attach them to the underside of the shade.

 

And viola! You are done! Add your shade to your favorite lamp base and you have a high end, beautiful looking custom lamp.

Want to see more from Valerie?  Visit her over at The Caldwell Project and follow her on Facebook!