Ballard Inspired Lamp Shade

Now that Christmas is over, I wanted to make a few changes around the house.      I’ve been studying a lot of my Pinterest boards and found that while I love the all white look, black and white really speak to me.    Fortunately, I have a lot of black & white accessories so I decided I’d incorporate those colors throughout the house for a cohesive look.   

“They” say that your foyer, which is usually the first room people see when they come into your home, should give an impression of what is in the rest of the house.    I decided to ramp up my foyer table by adding a new lamp and lamp shade.    The lamp that had been on the foyer table for years was a yard sale find which had served it purpose so I wanted to replace the lamp and use some things I had around the house so this would be a fairly cost effective change.    I found a lamp at my favorite flea market and used a drum shade off another lamp I had (of course, now I have to replace that shade!).    

I’d seen a black and white check shade in the Ballard's catalog but it was waaaay more than I was willing to pay.   I can’t find it on line or in their catalog so I don’t know if they still offer it….both reasons to make one.

There are numerous tutorials on line about covering a lamp shade so I didn’t photograph the steps.    Since the shade I was covering was a drum shade, it was very easy to just cut a piece a little bigger than the shade without having to make a pattern.     After cutting out my piece of fabric, I folded over the top and bottom and pressed it to have a smooth edge.   

 

Then I just hot glued it around the top and bottom edges.

I tried to keep it smooth but after it was all glued down, there were a few wrinkles and the edges didn’t come out as smooth as I wanted.    So I added a piece of trim to the edges.

 

I think it adds a nice finish.    (There was still a wrinkled place but hopefully no one will notice once it’s on the lamp)

Want to see how it looks?    

 

 

Everything on the table I already had.    The only thing this “makeover” cost was the flea market lamp base.

 

 

When my husband came in tonight he even said he liked it!   He either doesn’t notice anything new or doesn’t comment.

I put some old books under the cloche and added a little frame with our initial.    I’ll probably change out the computer printed monogram but since I was trying to use what I had, I just went with it.

 

 

I also added some black and white frames to the mantle and a piece of subway art…of course I need to add a picture to the large white frame.

 

 

I really love how the mantle looks so it will probably stay like this for a while.   See that pretty little shell?    My sweet granddaughter gave that to me at Christmas…she said she picked it up last summer at the beach and knew how much I loved shells!    Sweetness, I tell ya!

Next on my radar is making a burlap runner for the dining room table.    Since I’ve been in “project mode” lately, I hope I can get it cut out and made while I’m in the mood!

If you read my blog lately, you know my SIL went to Miami for the Alabama-Notre Dame game.    He is a H-U-G-E Alabama fan while the rest of us are Auburn fans.     I do want to offer my congratulations to Alabama for a fantastic game….this means our state has won the last 4 BCS Championship games!