Wow, it's been a long time since I posted something crafty I've done. But I've been so busy making and refurbing stuff that I haven't had a chance to post about it. Well no more! I have three projects that I've done recently that I'll post about, but I'd hate to overload the senses. So here's the one I'm the most excited about. As you can see from this picture below, my room in my apartment is pretty much devoid of personality. No color, absolutely nothing that shouts "Shannon's Room". I know you're supposed to sleep in your bedroom, but you shouldn't fall asleep just looking at it. I mean come on already!
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| Alright, Alright, wake up and keep reading |
If you've read any of my other posts, you'll know I have a pretty big event coming up in November. My goal has been to have my room looking ship shape and super cute by then. I'll probably be spending some quality time in there so I want to feel happy when I look around. Buying stuff for your house is a happy experience, but I'm finding when I put in the work to fix something up, that happiness multiplies exponentially.
So when Kami and I took a trip to the DI, I got an idea. I loved the lamps in my room when I first got them like 5 years ago. Now one of them doesn't work right and they're just plain boring. We started looking at the lamps because I wanted to fix up the shades I have and maybe put them on some candlestick lamps. But then, I found these beauties:
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| Disclaimer: I'm crappy at taking Before and In Progress pictures |
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| I know, how could this get any prettier? |
I actually really liked the color of the Restoration Hardware lamp and I was sort of hoping to find something that would compare. So off I went to my favorite place on earth, besides IKEA, Home Depot!! Actually the Home Depot by my house has a semi limited selection of spray paint. It's way larger than a Walmart would have, but I realized its limitations when Jeff and I were out in Herriman and went to the Home Depot there. I spent a good ten minutes running up and down the spray paint aisle going "Look Jeff! They have.." and "I didn't even know this color existed" etc. etc. He stayed frozen in place staring at me with a look of wariness, tinged with fear, on his face. After reassuring him that I hadn't plunged off the deep end, I vowed to come back here any time I was looking for a variety of colors of spray paint.
Of course when I got the DI lamps, I took a field trip out to Herriman and had a moment of silent awe, again. Here's what I had to work with (in all it's grainy phone pic goodness)
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| Work, Turn to the left... |
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| Work, Now turn to the right...Sache, chante |
For the shades, I knew I wanted ruffles. I debated crocheting some ruffles, but decided on glueing on some eyelet lace trim instead. Of course, when I got it, they were almost out. So I didn't get enough and there was a gap in the back. I went to different store, found some almost identical and filled in the gaps. Can you see them? Not unless you turn the lamp around. So I'm ok with the back looking a little screwy. I wasn't loving just the two layer look. I'd wanted to go with three, but there just wasn't enough in that first batch I got. I started throwing a mini fit and got frustrated until Kami came over, saw it and said, why don't you stick a contrasting color in the middle? She's a genius and I was instantly happy again. So I got some blue ribbon and had my mom sew a baste stich through it so I could gather it into a ruffle. (One of these days I will get her extra sewing machine fixed and do all this stuff myself) I glued the ruffle on the first lamp shade aaaaand...hated it. The ruffle wasn't thick enough and barely peaked out under the lace. It looked odd. So I cut it off. I should rewind here and mention that I stuck on some white muslin with spray adhesive before doing anything else. The shades were an offwhite which I didn't want showing through the eyelets. So I cut out that strip of muslin that the blue ruffle was glued to, cut a replacement strip of muslin, and glued it on over the gap. It's not pretty, but it doesn't show unless you lift up the lace. And if you're lifting up the lace, I'm a little worried about you. You can get in trouble for that kind of thing, I hope you know.
I still wanted a little contrast, though, so I played around with making a giant blue flower out of the ruffle. I knew I had the right idea when I involuntarily squealed with delight after holding it up next to the lampshade. A little more hot glue, Kami was right I'm obsessed, and TA DAAAAAA! (I know the color of the lamps is hard to see, but it was night when I took these pictures and I was too excited to wait another day to post)
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| You better work...Work it girl... |
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| Do your thing...On the nightstand |
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| I love eyelet lace! It's so girly and delicate. It really balances out how dark the blue is. |
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| And a closeup of my fave flower. The blue on the lamp is pretty much exactly the same shade of blue. Ha ha, get it? SHADE of blue? Whew that was a good one. |
Linking up to the FJI Color Challenge for the 3000 followers Event
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The Friday Remodelaholics Anonymous party
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FJI's SNS party
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Just A Girl's Show and Share party
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Perfectly Imperfect's Style Feature Saturday
Whew, I must have really liked this project or something.
