Revamp your lamps!

While working on my big guest bedroom project I found myself needing some new bedside lamps. I had two that were next to the bed that I really liked the shape of- kind of a modern meets retro base on the both of them, each with a cool cylindrical modern/retro shade.  I didn't really want to spend $20 each for a couple new shades so I ran to the craft store and went on the hunt for some fabric.  I perused the clearance fabric for a bit before I found what I was looking for.  I got more than I needed, which I recommend.
 You never know when you'll need a little extra for your current project or another one.  Since I'm covering 2 shades I went ahead and got 2 yards so I'd have some left over.
Fabric- around $7
I already had the rest of the supplies like the lamps and both shades. However, if you do have to purchase them they aren't very expensive if you shop around.
*Try craft store for shades and consignment shops for lamps.
One of my shades is plain white but the other one has a dark pink design on it.  Unfortunately putting a patterned fabric over top of a different pattern may not work without something to make the original shade pattern disappear.  This is my first lamp shade project so I thought I'd try a new approach.

This is the shade with the pattern.  I decided to paint the shade with high heat primer to see if I could get the pattern to drown out behind the new fabric.  It worked pretty well but it needed a couple coats because the pink was so dark.  I used high heat primer spray paint because it was the darkest I had on hand but any spray primer should work.  You could probably skip this step if your fabric is thick or obviously if your shade doesn't have a design on it.
NOTE- Both of my lamp shades are cylindrical so the measuring and adhering is really, really easy.  I'll be doing a cone-shaped shade in the near future which I will post later.
The next step- Start recovering.  Start by measuring your shade against the fabric.  I did this in kind of a lazy way... I lined the seam of my shade about an inch from the edge of the fabric and rolled it slowly down the length of the fabric until it reached the other seam.  Leave about an inch of fabric more than you need on each end and cut your fabric about 2 centimeters wider than your shade so you'll have room to attach it to the inside of your shade.
Line up the edge of your fabric (making sure that there is room on both sides to be able to curl into the shade) to the seam of the shade and use hot glue to attach the fabric.  Once your edge is secured to the shade you can begin hot gluing the fabric all around the shade.  This can be a little awkward as the fabric can shift while you glue it down.  The easiest way I found to attach the fabric is to put down about a 2 inch line of hot glue on  the curled-under part of the inside of the shade, and then, making sure you have ample room on both sides to attach your fabric, use both hands to simultaneously stretch* the fabric across the shade and secure it by pressing the edge of the fabric into the hot glue.  I found it best to attach the fabric by going from one side to the other in about 2 inch intervals (2 inches on the top and then flip it over and attach 2 inches on the bottom, and then back to the top side).  Keep doing this all the way around the shade (don't worry if the inside "seam" is rough and uneven, that will be fixed in a bit).

*When I say "stretch" the fabric, I don't mean stretch it to where it's tight, Keep it loose but unwrinkled.  Think about a canvas that you would use for a painting- it's "stretched" across the wood but not to where it's like a drum.
Once you've attached the fabric around all but about an inch of the shade you're going to want to clean up the rough edge of the fabric by folding over the edge (hence the extra fabric on the edge), creasing it, and hot gluing it down.

Attach the outside edges of the remaining fabric to the inside of the shade and then run a thin line of hot glue underneath the folded-over edge and press down to attach.
Last step- clean up the inside seams.  An easy way to clean up those uneven or stringy seams on the inside of the lamp is to run a thin line of hot glue underneath the uneven edge and then use your fingernails to either squish it up to the seam of the shade itself or if there is room, use your fingernails to push it under the seam.

A good example of how to do this (ladies) is to think about pushing back your cuticles before a manicure- pushing it back to make a clean, even edge on the nail (or the inside of a lamp shade).
Once you've got all the edges cleaned up then you're ready to put your new shade on your lamp and light it up!

Easy right?  So easy!  Hope this was helpful and that some old lamps somewhere get new life breathed into them........

 *HINT* Check out the pictures with the purple wall... doesn't that headboard look familiar?  This is part of the big guest bedroom project.
Where is this project, you ask?  Well- I'm going to do a reveal once I get all the small projects for it done first.

P.s. That color on the wall behind our fancy headboard was a $6 Lowe's find........