Lampshade Creations

Temperatures have plummeted into the single digits and all our work on the house has ground to halt.  Our plan was to save all the inside work for the cold weather and the outside work for the warm weather.  It's a good plan, we just didn't count on how hard it is to get motivated when the house is chilly and the fire is warm.  I also didn't want to sacrifice being able to be generous and give freely during the holidays, so we stopped allocating funds to construction and focused on Christmas instead, so our construction fund depleted and we have to spend some time rebuilding it before we move on.  We've had a dusting of snow, nothing awe-inspiring, and definitely not enough to make me feel like going out for photos, so I'm all out of outfit pics for the time being.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not much interested in outfit photos in any weather at the moment.  I'm completely wrapped up in getting my house finished, but I know that construction = house; decoration = home.  The love and care you put into how you decorate your home is where the love and personality shine forth.  To that end, on days when we can't rally ourselves to be too far from the fireside, I have a special project that I began a few months ago and has been perfect for keeping me feeling accomplished during the worst of winter.

In the late spring, my 90-year-old great-aunt passed away.  Our family spent weeks going through her things and as it turns out the woman was an avid collector of lamps.  Walking into the house for the first time, I commented that I would take the green lamps because I thought they would match my decor.  I was duly given every. single. green. lamp.  I have at least a dozen now, plus several antique floor lamps that needed rewiring.  Many of them had shades that were crumbling to the touch; some had no shades at all.  I started researching options for buying Victorian style shades or simply recovering the ones that came with the lamps.  Somewhere in all that searching, I came across The Lampshade Lady.  Ms. Mary has been running this small business for decades.  She provides the lampshade frames which are reproductions of Victorian styles, and the supplies as well.  You can also buy kits and a tutorial video to get you started, which is exactly what I did.  There are plenty of tutorials out there, and Ace of Shades is a great source of inspiration, but Mary's seemed like the whole package, plus you get personal customer service from her if you need help.  

I finished the first shade and put it on this Art Nouveau style white floor lamp.  So pleased with the results, I contacted Ms. Mary and ordered three more frames and some replenishing supplies and have now covered all three of those plus an additional three that came with lamps.  I haven't started applying the fabric and trim yet.  I'm sort of waiting to see how the construction goes so that I can try to match the shades to the vibe of the rooms as they are completed, but I have enjoyed working at this task, keeping my hands busy on these long days indoors.