DIY: Painted Lampshade

Upon moving into our new home in Okinawa, we quickly realized that around here, lamps, of all things, are hard to come by.

Our living room has large, bright, florescent ceiling lights… not at all relaxing to snuggle up under in the evenings. It was clear that something had to be done to improve our snuggle time and so we set out in search of a lamp. We checked the BX (for those of you who don’t know, BX stands for Base Exchange and it’s basically Military Walmart) they had ONE lamp. It was a basic lamp, nothing fancy. It could have worked fine if only the shade hadn’t been grey. With our cream colored walls, brown couch, and brightly colored accents, grey was NOT going to cut it. No, I thought, we can do better than this.

We checked two off-base, Japanese furniture stores and a couple other random places. No lamps. Lots of ceiling fixtures, a couple floor lamps, but not a single table lamp that I could set on the end table beside our couch.

All I wanted was a lamp. Was that really so hard?

In the end, the grey lamp came home with us. I warned it well in advance that it was in for a makeover. And now I’ll explain, step-by-step, how my DIY painted lampshade came together so you can make one of your own!

How to paint a lampshade

What you’ll need:

• A Lampshade
• 3 Different Color Acrylic Paints
• A Paint Brush (I used a basic 1 inch flat brush, nothing fancy.)

Choosing your colors

On my lampshade I used DecoArt Americana Pineapple, Jack-O’ Lantern Orange, and Cadmium Red.

For your DIY painted lampshade you can choose colors that will match the room the lamp will live in. Just keep in mind that not any three colors work together. Choose the wrong colors and you could end up with a brown lampshade! A safe bet would be to take a look at a color wheel and pick three colors that are right next to each other.

A few color combos that would work beautifully are: Red, Pink, Light Pink; Blue, Green, Yellow; Purple, Violet, Blue; or Violet, Purple, Pink.

Get to painting

To start, prep your work-space with cardboard or newspaper as this will get messy. Get a glass of water and find something to put your paints on that won’t let them seep through. A painting teacher I had years ago taught me to use cleaned Styrofoam food trays as paint palettes and I’ve stuck by it. Styrofoam trays really do work wonderfully but you can also use a proper palette or paint tray if you have one.

Squirt your paints onto your tray and add water to each color. Making your paints watery will help them to spread over the fabric covering of your shade. Start with the lightest color and begin painting around the top of the lampshade.

Get a generous scoop of paint onto your brush and brush it into the shade. Repeatedly dip your brush into the glass of water and soak the paint and lampshade with it as you spread the paint around. You’ll understand this method better when you go to do it. The material of the shade quickly absorbs the paint, making it hard to spread evenly. This will result in the paints looking patchy. Getting everything wet and runny will achieve a more even result.

Paint just under 1/3 of the lamp shade and go to your next color. You will want to freshen your glass of water, all that dipping will have muddied it up real quick.

Start with your next color in the middle of the lampshade and work your way up to meet the first color. As the two colors are nearing each other, let your paints bleed together in your paint tray and begin to use them both. Don’t mix them together entirely. Rather get a little of each on your brush and blend them together into the lampshade using back-and-forth/side-to-side strokes. I even used my fingers a few times to help blend them smoothly! Keep dipping in the water the same as before, changing your water as needed. The colors will blend together and make a natural gradient.

Once you’re satisfied that the first two colors are doing well, start on the bottom of your shade with the darkest color (freshen your water again) and work up in the same way as before. Blend the lower two colors as they meet while soaking everything with water.

You will want to touch up as you go and probably do more than one coat. Don’t be afraid to let it be messy. I promise it will add to the style of it! There’s no science to this, just blend and soak and paint as you go till you feel like it’s done. Let it dry (it may take a while because of all that water) and put it on the lamp. You will probably see a few places that need touching up when you turn the lamp on and the light shines through it. I know I did. Once the final touch-ups are done you can sit back and relax beside the soft light of the masterpiece you have created. Well done!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this DIY painted lampshade tutorial. Share it with your friends so they can brighten up their living spaces too!

Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

For more home decor projects, check out these cute centerpieces I made!