DIY Lampshade Makeovers

This is a quick, simple DIY that I think you’ll love! Do you have a lampshade that is old & tattered? Or one that doesn’t match your decor? Did you know you can update a lampshade very inexpensively? There are so many options you can choose for yours. They can be painted, decoupaged, covered with fabric or lace, decorated with beads….etc! Over the years, I have recovered several lampshades using fabric & trim. I’m highlighting two lampshade makeovers today. For the first one, I used jute, and on the 2nd one, lace.

Lampshade 1

Have you read the book ‘If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It’s cute and pretty much describes my project adventures. I don’t think I’m the only one that starts with a small little project that just blooms into so much more! That’s how this lampshade makeover started. I wanted to add some teal accents in the living room & decided to paint a side table. As you can see below, the table was a light olivey color. Once I painted the table, I felt the burgundy was too harsh against the new color so I decided to update the lampshade. The table post can be found here.

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Step 1 – choosing materials

Now that I made that decision, I searched Pinterest to see what type of makeover to do. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve used fabric before but there are so many other options and I wanted to try something different this time.

Step 2 – removing fabric

The first step was to remove the trim & then the burgundy fabric. I wasn’t sure if I also wanted to remove the inner fabric, so I carefully cut off the outer fabric with a small pair of scissors.

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Step 3 -adding jute

When the outer fabric was removed, I could see that the inner fabric did not sit flush with the frame. I really liked the curvature of the frame and thought that maybe the jute would snug the fabric up to the frame as I added it. Starting at the top of the lampshade, I tied the jute to the frame. I then started wrapping the frame & inner fabric with the jute. After finishing a small section, I could see that the inner fabric was preventing the jute from laying flat against the frame and the jute was not helping the fabric to sit closer to the frame. Although I liked the soft light the inner fabric provided when the bulb was on, I decided to remove it anyway. Once I removed the inner fabric, the jute I had wrapped was loose. Instead of taking it off, I just tightened it one strand at a time.

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If you’ve worked with jute before, you know that it is thin and a bit scratchy. I chose not to wear gloves but I do think it’s a good idea to wear a pair. Since the twine is so thin, it did take a while to wrap the entire frame. Each time I finished roll, I tied the new string to the existing one. Then, as I wrapped the frame, it was easy to tuck the ends between the strands. To my surprise, I used all 6 rolls before finishing! I went back to the $1 store the next day & bought another 3 pack. Each roll is 100 ft. I ended up using about 2/3 of the 7th roll so I estimate 675 ft for this frame. The total cost of this project was $3 and I have jute left for a future project. After all the jute was on the frame, I snipped off the longer ‘hairs’ on both the inside & outside of the frame. We use an LED bulb that doesn’t get hot, but I thought it was safer to make sure there were no long jute hairs on the inside of the frame.

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Step 4 – finishing touches

Once the shade was finished, I had a thought: ‘Could I use some of the burgundy trim to accent the jute’? I pinned on a piece along the bottom of the shade to see how it looked. I sorta liked it. I thought that with the trim, I may not need to change the color of the remote holder. When hubby got home, I asked his opinion and he preferred the shade without the trim. I was fine with that….now I needed to paint the holder.

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YouTube – Jute Lampshade

Lampshade 2

My bedside lamp is one that I have had for many years and for most of those years, I have detested the lampshade that came with it.  It’s from Princess House Crystal & I’m not quite sure why they sold this lamp with a plastic shade. Over the years, I have casually looked for a shade to replace it but never did find one that was the right size and shape; at least not one that I just HAD to have. Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it’s the only one I had.

One day, I was looking through Pinterest (I notice that many of my posts have that same line….) and saw several posts showing lampshades that had been updated with lace.  At that time, I wasn’t thinking of my bedside lamp; I just loved the look.  

As I recall, it was a rainy Saturday and I was home alone with nothing on my to-do list – other than housework – ick.  I was thinking it would be fun to do a little project. I remembered the Pinterest posts with the lace lampshades & figured it was a good time to replace the plastic on the bedside lamp.

Step 1 – choosing the lace

After looking at all the lace on hand, I found a Princess House lace table cloth!!!  I had used it for years on my dining table….so long that it had started to shred and was covered in stains so I had set it aside for a future project. I would be perfect for the lampshade!

Step 2 – removing the plastic

I took the old lampshade to my craft room & to my surprise (although, it shouldn’t have been a surprise since it was 4 decades old), the plastic just fell apart as I started to remove it from the frame.

Step 3 – adding the lace

After removing the old plastic covering, it was time to add the new, lace one.  In my mind, I figured I’d cut each panel and glue it onto each section individually as I had with other lampshades.  On second thought, I decided to just do it all in one piece.  I laid the tablecloth out on the floor, found a section that had no stains or rips, and laid the frame on its side along one edge.

Once the frame was laying on its side, I rolled it across the tablecloth while marking the cloth an inch longer than the top edge and bottom edge of the frame. I’m not sure if that makes sense and I regret not taking pictures of the process.  After the fabric was marked, I cut the tablecloth – it was in a semi-circle.  When the fabric was cut, I took hold of the top of one end and held it against the top of the frame, turning the fabric over the top. With needle & thread, I just started hand stitching it to the frame with long, basting stitches. 

When the top was stitched on, I moved to the bottom of the frame.  Pulling the fabric taut, I hand-stitched the bottom of the fabric to the frame.  When the end of the fabric reached the beginning edge, I turned over the raw edge for a clean finish and hand-stitched the ends together.

Step 4 – finishing touches

Let me know your thoughts

I’d love to hear what you think of these DIY lampshades! Have you done one yourself? Let me know all about it. Scroll down to leave a Comment.

Supplies Used

• Lampshade 1
  • Lampshade
  • Jute twine
  • Scissors
• Lampshade 2
  • Lace
  • Scissors
  • Needle & thread
  • Braid, fringe, Silk flowers
  • Edison bulb *(optional)

For your convenience if you need supplies

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