i like lamp

I had it in my head that I really wanted to cover a pair of big, bulbous lamps with jute to put on end tables.  I keep popping into Goodwill to try to find something with the right shape, but haven't found "it" yet  What I did find was this lamp which was exactly like a lamp we had in Cyprus.  Nostalgia paired with the $1.99 price tag convinced me the little lamp with the dark, rough finish needed to come home.  

Our Cypriot model of this Ikea lamp was a matte silver, which really suited me though I had always considered painting it.  I had just finished painting the $6 chairs and had more paint leftover than I knew what to do with, so the high gloss red seemed like the perfect solution.

Here's what you need:

one lamp

fine sand paper

Rustoleom paint

paint brush

painter's tape

The materials make this project sound way more intense than it is.  I taped off all of the electrical elements as I have a serious tendency to get paint...everywhere.  Depending of the paint you use, I would recommend lightly sanding the lamp to give the paint a better surface to adhere to.  I had already used the Rustoleom paint on the chairs and knew it to be heavy duty and willing to stick to anything, so I skipped the sanding.  Then, I painted.  I know.  Really intense here.  I used a 1" flat bristle brush.  My lamp had some nooks and crannies to it that I wanted to get the paint into.  I covered the whole lamp in paint then let it dry for a day or two (Florida humidity is brutal) before doing another coat and touch-ups.

For me, the key to this project is the paint.  I am a girl who loves neutrals but because of this paint, I'm tempted to paint everything I own Emergency Red.  It covers so smoothly, has a beautiful sheen, and the color just adds some serious WHAM! to everything.  Were it not for the humidity, this project could easily be done in a few hours, even with drying.  But it's Florida, so it took me a couple of days.

The shade is an inexpensive model from Walmart.  I'm lazy and they didn't have a color I wanted.  So rather than going to another store, I brought home the beige shade and spray painted it white.  The shade cost $7.88, way more than the lamp, but for less than $10 total, you can't beat it!  I have some daydreams of adding black trim of some sort to the shade to punch it up a bit.