PB-Inspired Goodwill Lamp Revamp Mad in Crafts

I recently found a really interesting lamp at Goodwill for $2.99. We needed a taller lamp for our living room end table, and this lamp had some detailing that reminded me of the Sutter lamp that Pottery Barn currently sells.

Okay, it was going to take a little imagination to get that cracked shade and horrible wood finish to look as elegant as the PB inspiration, but for $2.99 I was willing to take the risk.

I liked the sort of “pipe fittings” look of the lamp base, but the chrome finish was all wrong.

First, I coated the base with matte brown spray paint to cover the metal and “wood” evenly.

After the first coat dried, I added two more coats of Krylon’s Oil Rubbed Bronze.

I had a decent amount of faux suede leftover from my Audubon Bird Prints project, so I used it to re-cover the crummy shade. I simply marked off how much fabric I would need and used spray adhesive to glue it to the shade.

use spray adhesive to glue fabric to shade

Then I sprayed the shade with spray adhesive and rolled on the fabric. Don’t my scissors look tiny? Perspective, y’all.

I folded the suede to make a neat seam and glued that down.

In order to have the excess material fold over the top and bottom of the shade cleanly, I snipped into the fabric every inch or so.

Fold each tab of fabric down and glue. Hot glue works better than the spray adhesive here.

Since the details on the PB lamp were sort of an antique copper color, I thought I would try to brighten up the details on my lamp too.

I got out some Krylon Champagne Nouveau since I had it on hand.

I thought I could spray a little in a cup and then dry brush it on to the lamp. Wellllllllllllll…

First, I learned that spray paint does THIS to styrofoam.

And, second, I learned that dry brushing a mixture of champagne-colored spray paint and disintegrated styrofoam doesn’t look like antiqued copper.

Nothing another quick coat of ORB wouldn’t fix.

I put my smarty pants on and decided that to paint something copper, I would need copper paint. So I bought some.Then I taped off the pipe fitting details with painters’ (Or is it “painter’s”? How many painters own the tape?) tape.

I used Folk Art’s Metallic Antique Copper, and it is beautiful like an old penny.

It took very little time to paint the three detail areas and let them dry.

I almost copped (Get it? “Copped?”) out of this step after the spray paint debacle, but I am SO glad that I didn’t. I love the added detail of the copper paint.

While I was out shopping for the copper paint, I spotted this adhesive embroidered initial on clearance. It was $2.79 marked down from $8, so I grabbed it up and stuck it on the lampshade.

While it might not be a straight-up knock-off of the Pottery Barn lamp, it is much improved from the $2.99 Goodwill special it originally was!

The scale of my new lamp is much better for this space in our living room, and I love the classy (albeit last minute) touch of the initial to the shade. For less than $10, it’ll do.

Have you done any Goodwill do-overs lately? Link them up in the comments!

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