I absolutely love baskets. They're useful and perfect for that country look. I'd been after a basket weave lamp base for ages. They had one in a shop called OKA a few years ago. They still do a few versions here. Beautiful but well out of my price range.
About a month or so ago, I picked up this basket weave lamp base at the boot sale. I paid £2 for it. Last week I scored this lampshade for 50p. I meant to give both of them a makeover. Obviously. What is the point of buying a thing if I can't change it in some way?
The other week I received the new White Company autumn catalogue through my door. I never buy anything but I do like to window shop! Their interiors are just divine and how I'd like my home to be.
I couldn't help noticing a striking similarity between the shapes of my second hand lamp and theirs. Theirs is £100. Mine was £2.50.
When I pointed out how lucky my husband was to have me as I had saved him £97.50 he wasn't impressed. He said that we already had a lamp. Why did we need another one?
That's not the point. This one is better. It suits the room more than my lace doily creation. And it's much more baskety.
We agreed to disagree.
So, ignoring the husband, I set about transforming the base with the White Company catalogue to guide me with it's loveliness.
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| Ah, so true... |
I turned to my trusty basket painting colour, a trial size tin of F&B Skimming Stone. Usually I dilute this and do a wash of paint but seeing as this is an electrical item and I didn't want loads of water getting inside, I used it as it was, pushing it into the nooks and crannies of the basket weave.
It looked really patchy when it dried. I did a second coat. Hated it.
I went at it with a wire brush and it was marginally better but still very anaemic. I waxed over it with antique pine wax. I hated it. I was getting fed up.
I tried a new paint colour. An Oops paint, darker than the Skimming stone. (£1 a litre!) Hated it. Really fed up now...
Dug out some F&B eggshell and had a go with that and walked away. I cannot spend all day painting the same thing over and over. I wished I'd left it dark.
I didn't have much better luck with the shade. Here's how I covered the shade in pictures... because I don't want to talk about it.
OK, so now we have a bland anaemic base and shade. I thought I'd make a ruffle to attach to the shade. It looked so rubbish. You can see the discarded ruffle next to the lamp.
OK, how about livening it all up with a graphic from Graphics Fairy to add a little zing.
I trudged all over town in the rain, trying to find the right sort of photocopy shop. Got my copies. I tried the blender pen transfer method. Nothing happened.
I tried the Citra-Solve method. Here's what that turned out like...
Rubbish. With a capital R.
Fortunately I did this on a spare piece of fabric.
Unfortunately I melted a carrier bag all over the back of it.
And the iron.
So there we have it. Thanks for stopping by. Now you know how to create a really uninspiring lamp. It looked so good in the White Company catalogue. Mine just blends in with the surroundings. Perhaps I need to paint the whole room white for it to work? (Sob)
I'm off for a lie down...
And I miss the hedgehog.
