Recovering a Lampshade

A few people have asked me about the lampshades I have in my house and whether or not I bought them like that or recovered them. Most all my shades are ones I have recovered. As you probably know from looking at my blog, I love fabric and different patterns. If I have a lamp with a solid colored shade I feel compelled to change it. Maybe I just love to have an excuse to buy some cute fabric to put on something. The good thing about recovering shades is that it doesn't take much fabric and doesn't cost much money. The money part is always forefront in my mind because I like to do things as cheaply as I can. O.K., now here's my attempt at trying to explain how to recover a lampshade. Be patient with me and feel free to ask me about anything you don't understand!

1. Materials needed: shade, 1/2 yard of fabric, scissors, hot gluegun
For this project, I am using an old, cracked shade I got at a yard sale, but most of the time I use the self-adhesive shades. I buy them from Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Joanns. I am using the pattern off of one of the sticky shades I've done because the two are about the same size. I use this pattern for most of the shades I recover because most of them are about this size.


2. Lay the pattern on the fabric and cut it out. You may want to trace around the pattern with a pen and then cut it out.


3. Line up the fabric on the seam on the back of the shade and glue down along the edge.


4. Wrap the fabric around until it meets and glue down the edge, overlapping a little bit.


5. Leave about 1/2 an inch of fabric all the way around the top and the bottom. Trim it if you have too much excess fabric. Then make tiny cuts around the top and bottom flap of fabric and glue down. The cuts allow the fabric to lay down better and not get wrinkled and bunched up. The only places that have been glued are along the back seam where the fabric meets and around the top and bottom edge.


6. You can use trims around the top and bottom if you choose. I didn't on this one. Trims are good for hiding any imperfections.


I think it looks even better on this lamp I bought at a garage sale today for $1.


Here are a few other recovered lampshades around my house. If I get tired of one, I'll just rip the fabric off and redo it!




Be on the lookout at garage sales for lampshades. The ones I see are usually under $1. Get a self-adhesive one to start off with and keep the pattern to use for future projects. Obviously, you will have to use more or less fabric depending on how big your shade is. For the bigger shades I've done I'll just wrap fabric around it and cut it until I have the basic shape and then glue it down. I hope this all made sense to you. I wish I could just have y'all over for a lampshade redo partay! Wouldn't that be fun? You better let me know if you try this and I will want to see pictures so I can check your work! Hope y'all have a great rest of the weekend!