Faux Rawhide Lampshade Tutorial

 

Good morning! Last weekend I was piddlin' around the house, and decided to up-cycle an old paper lampshade for Justin's new house. Since his new home will be decorated in a hunting lodge/western motif, I've been pricing new lamps with rawhide-looking lampshades and boy are they expensive! After some thought, I decided that I could probably make one using what I already had on hand, and I ended up surprising myself at how good it turned out! Take a peek and then I'll show you how to make one for yourself: 

 

I began with a lamp that I had purchased several years ago at Old Time Pottery. It had a plain, plastic-backed paper shade, so I thought it would be perfect to use in my attempt at creating faux rawhide. Using a dry, soft-bristled paint brush, I "painted" the shade with some left-over coffee from that morning's breakfast. (This is a messy process, so I stood at my kitchen sink and rotated the shade while painting it so it could drip into the sink.) I then placed the shade on a tea-towel that I had spread out on my counter and allowed it to thoroughly dry. I repeated this process, to "age" the shade just a little more. Here's a photo of the shade before I got started:

Although it's hard to tell in the photo, (because I had moved outside, where it was sunny, for the next step), the shade is now darker and you can see the texture of the paper which picked up the coffee stains. To add a bit more dimension, I used an old toothbrush and some Apple Barrel "Nutmeg Brown" acrylic paint and splattered the shade with paint by running my thumb over the paint-loaded toothbrush.

After the paint splatters dried, I then sponged just a little bit of Americana brand acrylic paint in "Fawn" over the lampshade to add even more depth to the color. Once the paint dried, I then got to work by punching holes around the bottom of the lampshade. (My Crop-A-Dial made easy work of that!) I then proceeded to stitch the lampshade using some jute twine:

Once the stitching was complete, I glued some of the jute to the top rim of the lampshade to give it a balanced look. I then placed the shade on the lamp base and TA-DAH! - a great looking lamp for Justin's new bedroom!

I really love how this project turned out! I've been working on some more lamp up-cycle projects, so stay tuned as I'll be posting those in the near future!

Thanks for dropping by...have a SPECTACULAR week!

Blessings,