I have B I G love for lamps! I really do.
I always want to buy all the lamps, but I don’t have room for all the lamps.
There is at least one lamp in every room, except for the bathrooms and kitchen, in my house. Hmmmmm? Maybe I need to add them there!
Lamps are great for so many reasons.
1 They contribute to the overall ambient lighting. What room (or eyesight) doesn’t benefit from the warm glow of a lamp? Lighting from varied heights and directions provides the best overall ambient lighting in a space.
2 The aesthetic and design element a lamp can provide obviously! A lamp is a perfect way to interject some color or pattern or introduce a sculptural element.
3 As used for task lighting, as a spotlight or to highlight something, lamps are pretty functional in that way.
4 And lamps are so great because they can be so diverse and found anywhere really.
Lamp updates and makeovers can be easy.
Most of my lamps were cheap finds at garage sales. One came from a designer brands warehouse sale and one from a friend that worked at that same company’s outlet store! Several of them needed a little TLC.
That palm tree is the lamp! Those were my designer end of the road finds!
You can so easily find lamps and update them. And for little money too.
Once upon a time, I found a cool pair and also a shapely single at some garage sales. Both were painted plaster. They’re pretty basic but had nice shapes and seemed like good candidates for my experimental gilding!
The garage sale lamps got leafed; silver leaf for the single and copper on the pair. While the metal leafing process was a long and messy one for me, I like the way they turned out and would do it again.
We all know you can easily paint any lamp you find at a thrift store or garage sale or even a cheap store find, but consider a metal leaf technique if you have the patience.
Something else to consider is making a lamp. Don’t be scerd. You can make lamps out of almost anything!
I’ve seen some crazy things waiting to be turned into lamps at our lamp lady’s shop over the years. A base and a stem can be added around, behind or even through more organic and odd shaped items.
Vases make great lamps too like these antique vase lamps from 1st Dibs!
Threading a rod through a hollow object is ideal. If you have mad DIY skills you can do this yourself. I’d go to my lamp lady for something like that myself.
I added my own shades to all of my lamps. There are so many fun options for shades. I could write another blog just about shades. They can really make a big difference in updating a lamp. Consider the shape of the lamp and the scale of the table it will sit on when selecting a shade.
Adding a new shade and a wood or lucite base are fantastic ways to upgrade your lamps. My living room lamp got a custom made 2″ thick lucite base to make it taller and more custom.
Changing or adding a decorative finial at the top of the shade is another small way to make a lamp more custom. Here are some of my favs from Etsy.
Again if you have the DIY
What?
Anyone else have a slight lamp obsession or good lamp makeover story?
