Reupholster Your Lamp Shade

I did this project before the blog, so I don't have before pictures, sorry. I did a different one later with process picture.


My husband came into the marriage with lots of junk! One was this lamp. Great base if but a bit gaudy and a terrible dust collector:

But the lamp shade was a pink silk paisley cloth with brown fringe!!! That interior designer was wacky. Anyway, hubby would not let me throw it away because the base was so cool. So it sat in storage indefinitely until I decided to try and reupholster the thing.

I cut off the cloth from the funky shaped lamp shade as best as I could to keep it in one piece. I used it as a pattern for the new fabric. I cut a half inch extra on the top and bottom of the shade to fold over the wire frame and a seam allowance to sew it together. I sewed the cover's front and back seam and slipped it onto the wire frame. I used hot glue to keep it as much attached as possible onto the wire frame and then I used hot glue to "hem" it to the top and bottom by gluing and folding over the extra half inch. Glue as close as possible to the frame and cut off excess because it will "show" for the light won't penetrate as well through two layers of fabric as it does with one.

Then I glued on braided cord and fringe. This project wasn't very cheap ($10 or so) because I wanted a particular fabric which was expensive, but now I have a lamp I am willing to use instead of take up space in storage.

So if you have a lamp with an ugly or torn shade that has a nice wire frame base, "reupholster" it.