My painted lamp (a Diddle Dumpling first!)

Have you ever spotted something in a thrift store, be it an item of clothing, accessory, decor item or piece of furniture and thought, "Hm.  Not bad.  But it could be BETTER!"  That's what this lamp had me thinking. 

 

Gourd table lamps seem to be all the rage lately, and while I didn't feel a burning desire to hunt down and purchase a gourd-shaped lamp of my very own, when I came upon this nice big one with its $3 price tag, I just couldn't pass it up. 

 

It's not that I disliked the ivory color.  Ivory is safe, and in the right space it would have been lovely.  But knowing where I wanted to put this lamp, the color felt boring to me.  And I definitely wasn't loving the brassy accents.   Besides, I've been dying to try painting a lamp for the longest time!

So I cleaned it off real good, covered the parts that I wanted the paint to stay off of with plastic bags and painter's tape...

...and got to priming!  I had to FORCE myself to be patient on this step.  When I'm working on furniture, normally I apply one somewhat heavy coat of primer, covering everything pretty well and then call it good.  But with this super glossy lamp I decided to go slow and applied 3 light coats of primer, allowing each coat to dry for about half an hour before applying the next.

Next came the color- a happy, glossy yellow from Krylon called "Bright Idea"- that I picked up at Wal-Mart.  Again, I tried to be patient and applied about 2 1/2 coats before I felt like it was good and covered.

 

I had kind of a hard time photographing the end result, so I apologize.  I topped the lamp with a nice big drum shade that I got at Target on clearance a while back.  The proportion was perfect for this bottom-heavy lamp. 

But then I noticed that my sweet shade had sustained a few bruises in our move that are painfully apparent when the light is on.  Between the seam on one side and the dents that seem to be spread out all the way around the shade, I can't just turn the unsightly part to the back.  Grr.

Can't see 'em when I use my flash, though!  Ha!

I can't stand the dents in the shade.  I'm scheming how I can camouflage those somehow.  In the meantime, though, I'm enjoying my happy new lamp.

More thrifty finds!

Hey, thanks for stopping back by!  I have some more thrifty fun stuff to share with ya today. 

 

First, I wanted to show you where I've been putting a lot of my little pretties. 

 

The house we're renting has a galley style kitchen with cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling.  At some point someone took the doors off the upper cabinets and lined them with some dark green (and wrinkly) contact paper.

 

 

The second thing I did when we got into this house (after scrubbing my fingers raw trying to get the rust stains off the bottom of the tub- ugh!) was tear out that contact paper.  I bought a roll of beadboard wallpaper from Lowe's and used it to cover up the layers of old wallpaper and moldy, crumbling plaster underneath the contact paper.

 

A coat of white paint all over the inside of the cabinets made them look fresh and pretty again.  Suddenly I had the perfect place to display some of my favorite things.

 

 On with the treasures!  I couldn't resist this rusty old enamel bucket, especially with that little blue stripe on the rim.  I think I may hang this galvanized metal envelope next to the front door for ingoing and outgoing mail.

Why does it look like camouflage?

These old cutting boards were too charming to pass up.

I'm not sure what this is made of, but underneath the words "hand forged" are stamped into the metal.

Pretty cool.

This linen lumbar pillow needs a little soak to brighten it back up, but I loved the embroidery and the hand-stitched rope trim.

I found another weird little acrylic accent lamp that was much heavier than the other ones.  This one has an actual stone base, though it doesn't stand up straight.  I think I can just tighten the nut that's underneath the felt on the bottom and that should do the trick.

More white serving dishes.  The oblong one on the left is ironstone and the big one on the right is just pretty.

The owners of this house left this cute hutch in the kitchen for more storage.  I gave it a fresh coat of white paint then just started stuffing it with my junk as I unpacked it. 

 

I shifted things and moved stuff from the hutch to the cabinets and vice versa, until eventually things settled and ended up looking pretty cute.

Okay, back to the thrifty goodness.  I'm not sure, but this might just be one of the cutest afghans I've ever seen.  Huh?  Huh?  It looks brand-spankin'-new, too.

I can't get over this cool wooden toboggan.  The pad is in rough shape, so I'll have to do something about that.  But it's pretty dang cute anyway.

 

See those two wooden boxes in the crappy photo below?

They're gonna end up looking something like this one, (from waaay back when).

Or maybe something like this one from last Christmas.

Check out this gorgeous gal.  Can't wait to freshen her up.

This sweet little nightstand was a steal and now lives next to my husband's side of the bed.  It definitely needs a facelift, too.  Don't worry, that'll be happening soon.

And just for fun, here's my bedside "table".  Love it!

Remember that big fat lamp from the last post?  Well, I finished it up and will have a tiny "before and after" on that one coming up.  Have a great weekend!!

Some thrift store treasures

Hello friends!  Miss me? 

 

I'm still here, buried up to my eyeballs in boxes and packing paper.  Seriously, why do they have to use SO MUCH PAPER??!  I've been unpacking for the past two weeks and I feel like I haven't even made a dent. 

 

Still, it has to end sometime.  So I'll just keep plugging away until eventually we have a house that's free of boxes and resembles a place worth living in. (Plus I'd really like to figure out where they packed my iron.) And maybe one day I'll get to do some fun projects again!

 

Meanwhile, I thought I'd share some more thrift store treasures that I've acquired over the past few weeks. 

 

I picked up this huge lamp today for a whopping 3 bucks.  THREE.  It's not ugly, but I'm changing it.  Scratch that.  I HAVE changed it.  :)  I'll have a "before and after" post on that soon.

 

 

 This sweet old school desk set me back $7 at the local ReUse Center (which is a lot like Habitat for Humanity's ReStore).  Cute, isn't it?

 

 

I'm not much of a milk glass collector, but I do have a couple of pieces.  This bottle is so beautifully ornate and heavy that I had to grab it.

 

 

Does it bother me that the bottom of it actually says "LIQUOR BOTTLE" on it?  Not a bit.

 

Check out this gigantic rolling pin!  It might just stay right there on top of my stove.  I joked with my kids when I bought it that it would be my new discipline tool!  Wa-BAM!!

 

 

 These two white canisters sit on my counter and hold my Slim Fast/protein powder mix and my secret chocolate stash.  (Not even joking about that.)

 

 

I found this smoky glass lidded bowl and the silver ceramic vase at the same time.  I almost didn't get the bowl because at first it looked purple.  But then sometimes it looks grey, and that's why I bought it.  I like things that change depending where they're placed and the kind of light they're in.

 

 

I noticed later that it has "Wedgwood" printed on the bottom.  Does that mean something?

 

 

 Two more hand mirrors for my collection!  Yessss!

 

 

This bright silver footed bowl has such a pretty shape.

 

 

And look at the cool swirly brushed pattern on the inside!

 

 

This pair of candlesticks look silver but they're actually glass with a silver coating inside and remind me of mercury glass.

 

I like these two little chintzy lamps.  The bases are plastic and the "crystal" is acrylic, but I think they're cute.

I didn't want to overload you, so I saved the rest of my treasures for another post.  Check back soon, okay?