Head. Heart. House.: DIY Disaster: Lampshade Saga

Warning: This is a long and wordy post. If you just want to see how my lampshade turned out, scroll to the bottom of the page,. If you want the nitty gritty details of how it all went wrong, start reading.

So as we are settling in to our new home, we are excited to be welcoming some of our family to visit this summer. I currently have 2 guest rooms, one downstairs and one upstairs.

Upstairs, I think I have everything a guest would need to be comfortable.

Downstairs, I decided I needed to add a bedside table lamp to make our guests feel right at home.

And honestly I'm sorry I did because what ensued was one of my worst DIY disasters to date.

Here's the story:

I decided I needed something cute yet inexpensive.

And, if you've ever shopped for a lamp you know they can get expensive quick-quick.

So I went to Target. But I wanted something that didn't look like it was from Target.

There were definitely some cute lamps, but then I saw this.

And I thought, "Geez, it's only $16.99 and I could DIY on that shade for a custom look!"

And so it found it's way into my cart.

So I headed off the nearest Jo-Ann.

At first I thought I would wrap a fabric on the shade to coordinate with the blue and yellow bedding, but nothing jumped out at me.

So then I was wandering the store for inspiration.

(This is dangerous for me. Usually I come to the store prepared with a plan of action. If I don't, I start to overachieve and it can get pricey. For an example...keep reading.)

Then I stumbled across these Martha Stewart stencils.

And I thought, " I can paint the lampshade with these stencils! It will be easy and so pretty!"

I even came home and took pictures to show y'all how easy and pretty was going to be.

And then I messed up. :(

I smudged some paint and the stencils were hard to line up to make a continuous pattern around the shade.

And then I smudged some more paint.

And then I thought, "I can't put this crap out in my house. Maybe I can just paint it solid to try to salvage what's left of a bad situation."

And so I painted it blue.

But it showed brush strokes and really needed a second coat but I ran out of blue paint.

And I put it on the lamp and it looked REALLY bad when I turned the lamp on.

And then I thought, "Now I really can't put this crap out in my house."

And proceeded to throw the damn thing away.

So then I started shopping for lamp shades.

I found this shade at Wal-Mart but when I got it home it wouldn't fit on the lamp.

So I returned it.

I couldn't find the size drum shade I needed for less than $20.00

and that was more than the lamp originally cost so I couldn't do that.

Then I read this article on Apartment Therapy.

They made a lamp shade using poster board and embroidery hoops.

But then I thought, " I can use the metal hoops from the failed lampshade".

And I dug it out of the garbage and ripped the hoops from the shade.

Then I got some poster board and some clothes pins and started going to town with the hot glue gun.

At this point I'm thinking, " This could actually work! I'm going back to my old idea of using fabric."

Then, I went back to Joann's.

I found some pretty yellow fabric that mimicked the design on the guest bedroom quilt and some white pom-poms (because I saw this shade at PB Teen and LOVED it but sure wasn't gonna pay $50.00).

So after I ironed it out really well,

I used spray adhesive to attach the fabric and hot glue to hold it down inside.