Always Never Done: How to Spray Paint Old ( Glass, Wood, & Metal ) Lamps

Well hello friends and hello fall! This is Amy, back from Always Never Done and with the close of summer and warm days coming to an end, I have been busily trying to finish all my outdoor painting projects before the weather gets too cold. This means all spray painting projects front and center immediately!

I found this helpless little, need I say ugly, lamp staring me down in my garage. It had been sitting for quite sometime while I figured out what the heck to do with it. Then I had a fantastic thought, why don’t I just spray paint the whole thing one color. I had originally wanted to do something fancy with this lamp but it had so much going on with all of the different textures that all it really needed was a fresh coat of paint.

This lamp has it all goin’ on. Groovy orange glass, rusty metal and faded wood. Straight out of the 70’s baby and ready for a bath of white primer. (You can also see I taped the areas that I didn’t want to get paint on.)

I chose spray paint for this project because of all the different materials used. Spray paint will give a nice finish in just a few easy steps. After wiping down the lamp to get all the dust and dirt off, I sprayed two coats of Rust-oleum 2X white primer in flat to cover the whole lamp.

It’s amazing what a little primer does for an old worn out lamp. After the primer dried, I sprayed on 2 coats of Rust-oleum flat white, let that dry and then I sprayed 1 coat of Rust-olem gloss enamel spray paint to protect the paint and give it a nice updated sheen.

Now, I need a shade to finish off my pretty little white lamp. I have a slight obsession with lighting, whether it be lamps, hanging lights or chandeliers. So needless to say I had the perfect lamp shade sitting around waiting for me use it on the perfect lamp. I decided to keep it very simple and clean and used a white drum lamp shade.

Just because you DIY something doesn’t mean you have to be super creative or artsy. Anyone can do this!!! Anyone. The simplicity of the finished result would fit into any décor.

You would never have known that this lamp used to be orange!!!!

So next time you see “that” lamp at a thrift store or garage sale or your grandma wants to give one to you, take it! Spray it one solid color and rock it with an updated shade. That’s all there is to it folks. And, in case you were wondering, the lamp cost me $2.97. Looks pretty fancy now doesn’t it  This lamp is now ready to rock on for a few more decades…or maybe till I come up with a new trend.