Lampshades

Since my kids are a bit older now, it’s time to erase some of the destruction of the toddler years. I got all of my furniture re-upholstered (professionally) before the holidays, and I’m doing some DIY improvements as well. I bought these lamps at Ikea around the time I moved into this house in 01, and pretty much immediately replaced the paper shades they came with with homemade silk taffeta shades. These shades were great, but now they are 12 years old, torn, and stained. Initially, I was going to replace them with another set of silk shades, but the larger lamps take quite a bit of yardage, and I did not have enough light-colored silk. If I wanted black silk lampshades, I would have been in business, but, alas, I want the lamps to actually shed light into the room. So I dithered for a while, and saw a photo on Pinterest of linen lampshades which looked just lovely. It just so happens that pale heavyweight linen is one fabric that I keep a lot of on hand, so I was prepared.

I found a medallion motif in an online photo of antique wallpaper. I screen printed the medallion onto the linen using gold ink, then sewed up the linen into tubes and put them on the lamps. I made shades for 4 lamps, 2 table lamps and 2 floor lamps. I really like the effect. I’m hoping these new shades last for at least the next 12 years, because I kind of hate sewing home stuff.

I stitched the shades in a tube, put a casing in the top and bottom, and added elastic to hold the shade on the lamp.

table lamp

floor lamp

old lampshade on a floor lamp

hole in the old lampshade

“before” pic of the formerly lovely silk taffeta lampshade

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