The other day I was looking around my little girls’ room looking for ways to improve her room. Since we are renting we’re not allowed to paint or do anything major. That makes it a bit hard I find. My eyes kept being drawn to her hideous lamp on the ceiling. Well, to be fair, it’s not really hideous, but in the mind of a five year old, it’s not appealing at all. I didn’t want to replace the lamp, scared of what I would find underneath and scared that I would not be able to hang back the original lamp. So I started thinking about ways I could change the lamp without actually touching the lamp. Of course that same afternoon my girl gave me the idea I needed. As she was browsing a ‘Princess mimi’ sticker book she saw a lampshade she absolutely loved! I gave it one look and immediately thought; I can make that!
Of course I browsed my beloved Pinterest and came upon a great blog that describes making a similar lampshade for the wall. I used her blog as inspiration and came upon my own version of this cool tulle pom pom lampshade! It does take quite some time but it’s really cheap and easy to do.
I went to Dollarama (love, love, love that store!) and bought a metal fruit basket. I was really lucky because it was just the right size for me (being slightly larger than the original lampshade). I chose the metal one because I didn’t want to use something flammable and I preferred something that would allow air to flow through. Simply because I am using the lampshade on a regular lamp as opposed to a string of battery operated lamps, I figured that the lamp could get hot and would need some ventilation (I use a energy efficient light bulb because they tend not to get as hot as a regular bulb, I would certainly recommend that!).
I had some left over tulle (yes, that happens with having a five year old in your house), mine was sparkling which turned out great but was really messy when assembling. I cut my tulle in strips of about 5cm x 15cm, but you can see what size you like, the longer, the bigger your lampshade will be. After cutting hundreds of strips (I think it really were hundreds), I started tying the strips onto my fruit basket. I added some metal wires at places because the gaps were quite wide at some spots and I wanted the lamp to be really full. I started on top and worked my way down. It took a really long time but it’s a nice and calming job as well.
After an emergency trip to Fabricland to buy some more tulle I was finally finished. I ended up using about 3 meters of tulle (yes, I know, that’s a lot!). My lamp ended up being really really full and I thing I would use slightly less tulle the next time as the lampshade turned out to be quite dark. I tied the lampshade to the existing lampshade with some metal wires. You can easily remove it and it won’t even leave a mark!
My girl loves her new lamp!
I hope you love it too and I would love to hear your ideas on how to turn an ugly lampshade into something cool for practically nothing!
My girl loves her new lamp!
I hope you love it too and I would love to hear your ideas on how to turn an ugly lampshade into something cool for practically nothing!
CAUTION! Please make sure you stay safe! Make sure your existing lamp can support the extra weight and make sure your lamp won’t get too hot. Remember; you are using flammable material (tulle) next to a lamp that can potentially get really hot, so make sure your lamp won’t overheat! We have used the lamp for two months now and haven’t had any problems with it but make sure you know what you’re doing when trying this!
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