DIY

DIY Chevron Lamp

February 3, 2012 Lady

I knew I wanted to put a lamp in Baby Boy’s room for those late nights when the overhead light is just too bright, but finding the right one that would coordinate with his room took a little searching.

I found some nice ones online, but fell in love with the thought of a Chevron lampshade when I came across some pictures I saw on Etsy. The only problem was, they were selling for a minimum of $60. Ummm…. no? That’s when I thought… “Pff, I’ll do it myself!”

So, I found a link with some tips on how to achieve the desired look and went from there.

I first went to Walmart and bought the following supplies and only spent about $15.00:

Painters tape
A small, cream lamp shade
Cheap paintbrushes
Paint (I just bought a small bottle of the sample paint that is under the paint sample swatches)

I then began taping the lamp shade. This was a little difficult to figure out, as the shade I bought is smaller than the example I was looking at, so it just took some trial and error time. This took about two hours to do.

My first attempt seemed to be going well. I thought I’d tape the entire lamp and could then peel off every other strip so that the lines would be the same thinkness, but as I worked around the lamp I was only able to get two complete “upside down peaks” and the third would just not match up. So, I knew I needed to get smart here.

My second attempt started with taping a “plus” across the top….

and then I used those four points to tape my upside down peaks from.

I then trimmed off the extra.

and added a little upside down triange of tape to achieve the “Chevron stripes” at the top.

But, as you can see, this method gave me very steep (and skinny) Chevron peaks, and was not what I was looking for.

It was in the third and final attempt that I found success. I ended up with four upside down peaks, not too steep, and just kind of eyeballed it as I went around the shade.

Once around I just kept adding tape, as evenly spaced as I could, until I reached the bottom.

Oh, and I also used a razor blade to cut the excess tape off as I wasn’t getting very clean edges with scissors.

I then added itty bitty upside-down triangles at the very top. I also made sure my tape was very firmly pressed down onto the lamp, ensuring there were no air bubbles or holes where paint could seep through.

I then poured my paint into a bowl, and this is when I got nervous as I thought the paint looked a little purple. So, I tested it on a similar color piece of paper and concluded that it should be fine.

Next, I very lightly painted around the seems of the tape and let this dry. This helped to create a barrier for the paint so there was less of a chance of it seeping under the tape.

Gave it one more heavier coat of paint…

and this is when the Hubby told me to pull the tape off. I thought I should wait until it was dry, but he’s been watching a lot of “Holmes on Homes” lately, and apparently it’s better to pull off when wet, so I gave it a shot.

Hooray! It worked!! Although it is not perfect, I am very pleased with the outcome!

Once I plugged in the lamp to test it out, I could really see areas that didn’t have as much paint as others. So, I painted one more coat, and had to do this very carefully since the tape had already been removed. You can kind of see what I mean in the picture below, as the top two lines have not been repainted, and the bottom two have.