DIY - Easy Lamp & Shade Makeover for Fall

Digging through  secret treasures... 

pushing helpless old people out of the way when I see something I want, and sending my ninja children to do my dirty work....   these are the thrills of thrift shopping.  

More specifically in my case, I {love} shopping at Goodwill. 

On this last trip I found something magical - a lamp that not only came with a shade, but it also WORKED.   Beat that.

We had no need of a new lamp, but there was something about it that caught my eye and I couldn't resist. (Brad was thrilled.)  I knew I had to do something with it. I just wasn't sure what.  And then I remembered I just recently bought some green spray paint. I have never ever used green paint before so this was especially exciting.  

And so my trusty old towel and I began the painting process. 

Excuse me... trying to do something here...

I used the black paint for the lamp harp to match the black on the shade.

I love how this green turned out!

Wahlah!  Yay. Happy Joy.  

But, not really.

It still felt too plain.

I wondered if I could try something new on the shade and so I began to google lamp shade decorating ideas.  I came across this lovely little French Chic Lamp post on Young Wifey's Blog, which then led me to The Graphics Fairy where I found and printed this leaf.

I taped it to the inside of the shade, turned the lamp on, and began to trace with my Sharpie pen. (The regular Sharpie markers will bleed.)

This process was very time consuming for me as I did 5 leaves total around the shade. 

And here it is completed...

I'm still trying to decide where to put it. 

And here is the "Before and After" just for giggles, shares, and pins-

This project as inspired me to try more colors and ideas with lamps!

Have you ever done a lamp like this before?  If you could makeover one of your lamps and/or shades right now what colors would you paint or what picture would you draw?

Thanks for visiting. :)

-Stacey 

*I don't really use my children to get what I want, and I am very nice to old people.