A Trio of Lampshades

Nothing could be quicker, easier or cheaper than painting colour on a few plain lampshades to add a touch of individuality to any room.

The trio of shades shown here have each been made using a different decorative technique. All are fun to do, and only the black-and-white stripes require a steady hand.

You will need:
Plain fabric lampshade
Paint brushes
Blotting-Paper effect
Blue ready-mixed watercolour paint
Droppered bottle
Striped effect
Cardboard
Cutting mat and Craft knife
Metal ruler
Black acrylic paint
Flecked effect
Cardboard
Pencil
Craft knife and Cutting mat
Toothbrush
Acrylic craft paint; yellow-ochre, brick-red and cream

Blotting-paper effect
Dampen the whole outer surface of the fabric with water, using a paintbrush.

Fill the droppered bottle with blue paint and squeeze it gently to deposit one small drop onto the shade. Watch the blot spread so that you can judge where to position the next drop.

Turn the lampshade with your free hand and, as you do so, drop equal amounts of paint, spaced fairly evenly all around the shade.

Fill the spaces between the blots with a more random pattern of differently sized dots, but be careful not to cover all the original lampshade colour completely.

Holding the lampshade from the inside, paint the top and bottom rims solid blue.

Striped effect
Cut a right-angled piece of cardboard the same length as the height of the shade (see pic above). Angle one side to make it easy to hold.

Hold the cardboard up against the shade and paint a wide squiggle to the right of it, using a large brush. After each squiggle, move the cardboard along; this will ensure that you paint vertically.

Paint fine squiggly lines between the fatter ones, using a small paintbrush. Support the wrist of your painting hand with your free hand to keep it steady.

Finish off the lampshade by painting the top and bottom rims with a solid black line.

Flecked effect
Place a circle of cardboard on the top centre of shade to prevent any paint from dripping onto the inside and place shade on a protected surface.

Fill the toothbrush with yellow-ochre paint; draw your thumb backwards over the bristles to fleck lampshade with colour. Try to get a fine, even covering, but allow background to show through.

Clean the toothbrush, then dip into the brick-red paint. Use the brush at an angle, to make randomly placed edge-shaped marks at different angles over the flecked pattern.

To finish the decoration, clean the toothbrush, then apply cream paint in the same way as the red.

Design Tip:
Use plain fabric shades and experiment with colour, using it to reinforce an existing decor theme or to add a spark of brilliance and give a quick face-lift to a monotonous colour scheme.

  source: instant decorating