Harlequin Diamond Thrift Store Lamp Makeover
- By Joan
- March 20, 2019
- 4 Comments
I found this lamp at the thrift store a few weeks ago. Like most of my thrift store purchases this was not on my list of things to look for. The lamp spoke to me when I found out everything in the store was half price. Apparently they were having a president’s day sale and nobody told me. What a pleasant surprise. So while he started out as $12, I got him for only $6.
Originally I saw no reason to not use the lamp as is. I didn’t particularly care for the Mountain Khakis sticker but that was easy to take care of.
He’s been sitting on my kitchen counter ever since he arrived home but the more I looked at him I changed from, I really should carry that up to my desk to, it really could be kind of fun to give the lamp a mini makeover.
Besides the sticker, the lamp did have a few scratches but it’s all part of his makeover.
First, take care of the scratches. Tape off any areas you don’t want spray painted. The tape is just covering the electrical cord.
Spray paint as desired. The paint may look black but it’s actually a brown-black, very similar to the original color of the lamp.
The metal shade got a coat of white chalk paint.
Measure the diameter of the top and the bottom of the shade. My shade was a little longer in the front than in the back so my bottom measurement is taken before it added the extra length.
The top of the shade was 12 “, so it was easy to mark the top of the shade in 1 inch increments.
The bottom of the shade was 17.5 “. Divide the bottom number by how many increments you had at the top (12) and that is how far apart your marks should be at the bottom.
Connect your top and bottom marks with diagonal pencil lines.
Use your best paint by number skills to fill in the harlequin diamonds.
I did go back with a finer paintbrush to fix any unevenness and get into all those tiny points.
This is the shade with the completed black and white. If you want to keep it black and white, finish the chalk paint with a coat of clear wax.
Vintage wax gives the lamp more of an old world feel and it fits in better with the rest of my rusty crusty stuff.
I love an easy makeover. Stay inspired.
Shared at Between Naps on the Porch
Copyright © 2024
Well done! Such a good makeover!
Smiles, alice
The lamp looks great! I think that difference in the length from the bottom front to the bottom back would have caused me to ponder quite a bit, you handled that really well. The darker wax does seem to add character and almost make it look like it has texture. Nice job.
Joan, I had to go back and look at the pictures a few times because in the bottom photos the diamonds look like wood grain. I missed the “dark wax” bit. LOL Your $6 dollar lamp looks fabulous now and has way more personality. The Pixar lamp kept running through my head while reading this post!
My son , who had seen the lamp before I painted commented, I don’t remember the lamp having a wood shade. 🙂 I didn’t even think Pixar lamp, but someone else had commented the exact same thing on Facebook and now that’s all I see.