French Script Lampshade Tutorial

As promised here is the tutorial for the lampshade I made for my sister's living room makeover.

She bought this lamp at HomeGoods and decided to split it up, the base would look better in her bedroom while the shades would work better in the living room with the bases she already had there. (it's white with a navy base and navy trim).
First we gave it a stain by using left over coffee from that morning. Just simply rub it all over using a sponge. Apply as much or as little as you want until you get the color you want.
**hint- if you have some colored trim on the shade as we did, be careful to try and not get too much "stain" on the trim as it might start to bleed and color the shade like ours did. However we were going for a shabby chic look and after the words were applied you couldn't see it as much**
Let it dry completely...

I forgot to take a picture of the stamping process and of the stamp but we found a french scripted stamp at Hobby Lobby for about $10 I think, it was about 4x6 or 5x7 in size, as well as a black stamp pad. My mom found a pad that had ink for fabric projects and dried super fast, not sure the brand, I'll find out for you if you want to know. I rubbed the pad over the stamp and carefully stamped the shade with a roll stamp technique since it's a rounded shade. It's better to practice on an old shade or something else round to get the hang of it. We decided to overlap the stamp when it came time for the bottom half to get stamped as well, but you could cover the bottom trim of your shade and and just line the stamp at the bottome of the first line. Are you getting all of this? It's pretty easy if you go to do it yourself, you'll understand what I'm saying.

Then it's time for the ribbon trim. Pretty much just cover the existing trim with your ribbon color choice, we choose black. Make sure you begin it at the seam so you keep with only one seam and not end up with 2. Fold over the end of your ribbon so it won't fray and you end up with a finished looking piece. I used fabric glue and it seemed to dry pretty fast.

We also kept the new lamp's finial and added it to the living room lamp, painted it black as well to match her existing lamp bases.
With the lights on...
And lights off...
They turned out really good and we were really happy with the results. You could also find a lampshade that is already a linen color and not have to do the staining part. That's it, pretty easy and didn't take too long.

Good luck if you try it yourself and let me know so I can see pictures!

~Megan

linked to:














The Shabby Nest- Frugal Friday