✥ Salvage A Melted/Damaged Lamp Shade ✥

I have this little wicker lamp leftover from my old office {job}. I used it briefly in my home office. But I put it too close to the desk shelf and the shade melted.

I was going to put the lamp up for sale for a few bucks- actually I did list it- but then realized I'm throwing away money.

Why not try to fix the shade and sell it for more? I still probably wouldn't keep it, as it never really "went" with what's happening in the rest of the house.

So- The BIG question- will recovering a lamp shade hide/fix the fact that it was damaged?
I chose to recover the shade with burlap for two reasons.
(1) I think it works with the wicker. (2) I wanted something sturdy that will hold its shape.
Recovering a lampshade is pretty easy. Just a few tricks to help you do it.
You want to cut out a piece of fabric large enough to not only cover the shade but also provide an inch of extra fabric on all sides.
I did this by simply rolling the shade along the fabric and tracing the outline with a marker.
Then go back over that line and make a second line one inch larger. This is the line you will actually cut.

The side you drew on will be the same side you will be attaching to the shade. I used some spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the shade. {I priced it out and paid 5 bucks at Walmart. It would've been a little cheaper if I had used a 40% off coupon and gotten it from JoAnn's.}

This is important you need to start attaching the new fabric to the old fabric seam. Then you will wrap the fabric around the shade, smoothing it as you go, until you end at the old seam. If you don't create your new seam over the old one you'll be able to see two seams when the light is on.
At the seam you should fold over the fabric to make a clean edge and use hot glue to secure it.
{If you're using a soft fabric, like silk, it's a good idea to fold over your fabric where the seam will be and iron it so it will look crisp.}

Next you'll wrap the excess fabric around the edges of the shade and use hot glue to attach it to the inside.
 Because my shade was warped I attached the fabric more securely to the tops and bottom and only firmly secured the fabric to the undamaged portions on the shade.


Once I finished, I staged the lamp and took some photos  for the sale listing. 
But when I saw the pics the lamp looked like something was missing. It was a little to plain. What do you think?

I decided some typography was in order. I turned to Microsoft Word and typed up something to give the lamp more interest and character. 

A "No. 301" to be exact.

I printed it up and planned to tape it to the inside of the shade, as I did with the French Bee Lamp I made last week. Because the fabric was so thick I could hardly see my stencil. I tried darkening the stencil with a black sharpie but it was still too difficult to see.

So I finally cut it out and taped it to the outside. I wanted the writing to be an even one inch from the bottom of the shade but a strait piece of paper wouldn't do that. So I made several cuts on the top and bottom of the stencil so that I could curve the paper slightly.



I used a thin brush and black craft paint to fill in the stencil. The stencil was a little flimsy- but I'm pretty good at improvising. If you aren't, just print out your stencil on card stock and you shouldn't have a problem.


So here it is.
The once ruined portion of the lampshade it right in the front and I think it now looks great!
There is no visible damage, at all!  The burlap is straight  and there is no waffling where the shade was once melted.

Maybe I should rethink selling this after all?

Thanks for checking out my project!

I party HERE-