Cheerful (Recycled) Lampshade for Julia

The shade on the lamp over the “story chair” in Julia’s New York room was looking pretty tired. We rescued the lamp itself from our furniture graveyard in the basement in Southampton, and its simple paper shade was showing its age –a crease here, a bubble there, a faint stain or two.  I was about to head to Just Shades (www.justshadesny.com) to find a replacement when it occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity to make something more personal for her room.

Before

A striped shade seemed like a good idea, but vertical lines present a math problem for most lampshades, which have smaller diameters at the top than on the bottom.  (Even most “drum” shades that look cylindrical have a top-to-bottom difference of an inch or so.)  What this means, of course, is that the stripes have to spread apart slightly from top to bottom to remain evenly spaced.  Fortunately, you don’t have to do the math (or, worse, the resulting measuring and marking).  If the stripes are at right angles to the top edge of the shade, you’ll be fine.  To accomplish this, all you need is an old drafting and carpenters’ tool called a square.  Just rest the short side of the square on the top and use the long side to mark the stripes with a pencil.

I wanted loose painterly stripes on my shade, so I only marked guidelines for painting them freehand, but if you wanted clean lines, you could first mark the edges of the stripes using the square and then mask them with painters’ tape.

For paint, I wanted to match a purple and a mustard yellow used elsewhere in the room, so I used artists’ acrylics I had on hand and mixed the colors myself.  Of course, almost any pre-mixed water-based paint would work just as well as long as the color works for you.  Given the small quantities required, though, buying small tubes of artists’ acrylics and mixing yourself is probably the most cost-effective option, as well as the one that gives you the most creative control.

To finish the shade, I bought some pom-pom fringe at M&J Trimmings in New York, which has a staggering array of buttons, bows, braids and the like on hand, both in their store (1008 6th Avenue, between 37th and 38th) and online at www.mjtrim.com.  What’s better than pom-pom fringe for a little girl’s room?  (N.B. To calculate how much trim you’ll need (the circumference of the shade), multiply the diameter by pi.  Yes, I had to look it up.)  I attached the fringe with fabric glue, which you can buy in all fabric stores and most hardware stores. (Apart from crazy craft projects like this, it’s useful to have on hand for emergency wardrobe repairs.)

It’s not perfect (I may search for fluffier fringe), but I think it was a success overall. It got an approving “Oooooooh” from Julia when she first saw it, and that’s enough for Daddy.