Inexpensive Black Lamp Shades

I love black lamp shades best, but seriously, who wants to pay $50-100 for a largish drum shade? Not I. The good news is these $16 white shades from Target take paint really well.

I was in a time crunch, and didn't have the right black spray paint on hand (like I thought I did), so I sprayed the shades with oil-rubbed bronze paint first, which made it really easy to cover the inside of the shade well.

The spray paint worked on the outer fabric wrap too, but it was a little trickier to get the saturation  just right. 

I did a light sanding after the spray paint dried, just to get any of the loose stuff off and and to smooth out drips. And then I lightly brushed on some black screen printing paint, which I'm learning is the best type of fabric paint around.

And I ended with a final light sanding.

It ended up being a lucky surprise how much I like the way the oil-rubbed bronze and the matte black paint finishes work together! Not at all sparkly like oil-rubbed bronze paint can sometimes be, but just enough of a sheen to look nice and, well, not spray painted. :)

Besides the obvious cost savings, fabric shades are much more durable. Paper shades start to show their wear after a couple years of being in a house with kids and moving a few times. And I think these look almost as good in person as a $120 shade from Just Shades (my favorite splurge shade source).

DIY Faux Malachite

I would have never guessed a couple years ago when I made this double wide desk from IKEA components, that I'd still be using this inexpensive combo today. I really love it - it's great to have so much work space - but it was time to change up the look a bit. When Sherwin-Williams invited me to use some of their green paint to dream up a project for National Painting Week, I knew my old trusty desk was going to be the lucky target.

I shared last week that I've been dying to try my hand at a faux malachite painting technique, but I've been a little intimidated. I had no idea just how easy it would be! Here are the paint colors I used, all of the colors were mixed in Sherwin-Williams All-Surface Enamel Latex Gloss, going clockwise from top left: Cape Verde (SW 6482), Active Green (SW 6986), Country Squire (SW 6475), and Faux Impressions Clear Glaze.

I put a coat of primer down on the desk, just make sure the surface was smooth and clean. I did a little sanding too, just with a hand block.

Then I brushed on a coat of Active Green for the base of the malachite.

I let that dry for at least a couple of hours.

I made glaze mixtures in both the dark green and dark teal colors. The mixture was about one part paint to three parts glaze, and then it was mixed well.

I think the secret to doing a very easy faux malachite is two sizes of fan brushes. If you can find something very small and another very large brush, that would be ideal.

The malachite pattern part is fun and easy. I started at one end and worked in rows. The trick is to layer the swirls on top of each other. You cover up the start-stop part of each swirl with the smooth, round part of a new swirl. The glaze makes it so the paint dries a little slower and you can layer on the swirls in a clean way, so that the clear bright green base shows through.

Turn on some music and try to keep a loose hand. :) The trick is to not go over the same part twice, if you can avoid it. Also, rather than doing perfectly rounded circles, add some wiggle to the brush so that the lines of the swirls have some movement. It takes some playing with to get the hang of it, but it's fun to do and it goes really fast!

Don't forget to switch back and forth between the small and large fan brushes and the dark green and the dark teal glaze mixtures. I mixed the mixtures together sometimes too (such a rebel, I know).

I also tried to continue the same swirl pattern and glaze color down the side of the table top for a consistent look.

And here's the dried, finished look:

It's definitely not meant to fool anyone into thinking it's real malachite. It's just meant to be a pretty, abstract look. I love it!

I like how much blue there is in the finished desk - I think the SW colors were perfect! I'm really loving how they look against my dark gray walls and with my leopard Eames chairs.

And now for the barrage of photos of the desk at all angles!

I loved getting to try another faux painting technique - especially one that had such quick and easy results! A big thanks again to Sherwin-Williams for sponsoring LGN and letting me participate in this year's National Painting Week. And be sure to catch the thirteen other design bloggers' projects this week! Today, Cassandra at Coco + Kelley has another green project (I love the color she chose!) and tomorrow Erin from House of Earnest and Justin and Cassity at Remodelaholic will share their yellow projects. It's going to be a colorful week in blogland! :)

Adding Trim to Closet Doors

There are two closets in my office that hold a lot of good stuff - fabric and trim and wallpaper samples. Since I use these closets often, I decided to make them prettier and I gave the doors a little facelift recently. Here's what the boring hollow core doors looked like on move-in day.

The painters our landlord insisted on using didn't prime any of the doors before painting them black (with latex paint??), so I've been going back one by one and re-coating with primer and oil-based paint. Here's what the doors looked like after removing the old hardware and giving them a light sanding. This was also after I took down the blue wallpaper. (We had a little photoshoot in the space a couple months ago and the wallpaper needed to be removed. It's a long story, but I was fine with it.)

At one point I had installed a big brass knob on the far right door, thinking I had four knobs, but I actually only had three (you can see one of them in this post). Bummer. The knobs were a little big for the closet doors anyway, so I started looking around for a good, but mostly inexpensive alternative. I found these solid brass knobs at Home Depot for $5 each and they fit the bill just fine. A little on the small side compared to the others, but probably a more appropriate size for closet doors.

I sanded the doors down by hand, which was a mistake. I should have pulled out my palm sander or even stripped the doors with my beloved Citristrip. There was definitely a texture left that I hoped wouldn't showed through the new paint, but it did a bit. It's not all that horrible in person, but learn from my mistakes and don't take the shortcuts here like I did. :) Hopefully your doors are smoother than mine were and the whole problem can be avoided.

I had a bunch of pre-cut trim from a few old projects that I decided to use on the closet doors. Since all of it was pre-cut, all my long pieces were ready to be installed on the door with my brad gun and this project was a cinch. I only had to cut the short pieces and the pieces for the small boxes in the center of each door.

I made things really easy on myself and made it so every border was 3" wide. This way I could just eyeball the placement of the trim, hold it up, verify with a ruler that the trim edge was 3" away from the door edge (or the next piece of trim) and then put in a nail with my brad gun. No marking out, no levels. Fast and easy.

Once all the molding was nailed up, I sealed all the seams with paintable caulking and gave that a light sanding when it had dried.

The old hardware holes were patched too and then the doors were ready to be painted.

The only dark-tint primer I had on hand was a cheap brand that I'm not a big fan of, but I used it anyway to prime the new trim. Not surprisingly, it didn't do a great job of sealing the raw wood. So the trim took the oil-based paint differently than the old door did. C'est la vie, I guess. (Note to self: Only buy Zinsser!)

It's hard to photograph super glossy walls and doors, so you'll just have to trust me that it looks prettier in person. :) But I'm happy with how the project turned out.

I love the shine and the bit of dimension that the new trim adds. And I love the new wall color (BM Chelsea Gray) with the black doors too. The masculine neutrals help tone down some of the brighter colors I have in the space (like the neon tetanus console). :)

One step closer to finishing this room that still needs a lot of work!

PS Here's the door in our old loft to my girls room that I trimmed out (without any power tools!) and painted a bright yellow. And another, better shot in this post.

Have you trimmed out any of your interior doors? I love how it can really elevate those hollow core doors so many of us are cursed with! :)

Waxed Cotton and How to Upholster an Antique Side Chair

Some of you asked about the little antique black chair in Heather's room. I got it at the flea a couple months ago for $10! It's super old and the floral fabric was kind of cool as is, but it was pretty sun bleached. 

(You can tell how long ago I bought this chair - the console hadn't been refinished yet) :)

I pulled off the top layers of fabric without much effort - the fabric basically disintegrated. But it  was so thick that the inside was pretty pristine and wouldn't need to be replaced (which was lucky because this chair had springwork and I didn't want to deal with that!)

For the new fabric, I wanted something with a sheen to it, but I didn't want any color or pattern because there is already a lot going on in that room with the neon desk and the patterned green rug.

I'm a pretty big fan of waxed jeans, so when I stumbled across this black waxed cotton at Graylines in the garment district, I thought it would be cool on the antique chair. It actually kind of looks like leather a bit.

I used the old padding as a pattern for cutting out the new fabric. (the padding was a little stretched out, so it didn't end up working as well as this approach normally does, but at least I didn't cut the piece too small)

I cut out notches so the fabric would sit around the back pieces.

And then I started stapling. I always start upholstery projects in the most difficult area, which was the back in this case. I swear by this inexpensive stapler, especially if you use the same brand of staplers. The staples I had on hand were too long and that's why they're sticking out a little, but it's no big deal at all to tap those in with an upholstery mallet.

Once the back part of the chair fabric was secured, I started on the front of the seat and pulled the fabric as taut as I could. It was a little tricky to pull the fabric enough while also getting the scallop shapes right, but that's the great news about upholstery projects. It's hard to really screw things up. If you put a staple in a the wrong place, you just pull it out and try again.

The sides and then the corners of the chair are stapled last, again, pulling tight and smoothing with your hand the whole time.

I trimmed the excess fabric and then tapped in the staples that were sticking out a bit.

I was going to do a self welt for the trim, but I fount some of this really cool vintage woven leather for sale at JEM fabrics in Tribeca. It felt all Chanel-y to me with the alternating black and white flowers. 

I started the trim in the back (it's a good idea to start your trim in the least conspicuous place) and used a not-too-thick line of my beloved Magnatac to secure the trim and cover the staples.

I love how the trim adds just a little bit of texture and interest to the desk area. The black on black upholstery could have been a little stale without it.

And doesn't the waxed cotton look a bit like leather? I'm thinking it would be a great choice for dining chair upholstery since it's water and stain-resistant, but looks way better than vinyl in person. I'll have to poke around online to see if I can find any more colors.