I love linens. I love vintage linens even more. I have an embarrassing amount of vintage linens. Today I crafted with it.
I made a little lampshade out of a vintage table runner.
It was necessary to solve a rather embarrassing situation.
Look, see here in my guest room:
This is about two years ago (or three, who knows). A small IKEA lamp leftover from my student years, serves as a little night light. Other than adding a doily to the stand it was in original condition.
Cue forward to last year.
The lamp is still hanging in strong in my guest room / reading room.
I changed it up a bit by painting the base white and adding jute twine to the stand.
And then boom. I dropped it. Glass shattered, shade broken.
And then nothing…..
For more than a year, it looked like this;
I plunked a little chandelier shade on top, that obviously didn’t fit and looked ridiculous. But I couldn’t come up with anything better and I didn’t want to buy a new shade for such an old lamp.
I was hoping I’d run into a cute ‘new’ lamp one day. In the mean time I was receiving guests in that room with the lamp looking like this.
Ridiculous.
Until today.
I walked into my little reading room, to put a book away when I saw that broken down little lamp. And I had had it with it. Even though I was supposed to be cleaning the bath room or scrubbing floors I set out to find / make a new shade for the lamp.
I am all about priorities like that.
Hidden deep in the dungeon of my craft room I found an cheapo shade made from plastic and fabric.
I removed the fabric only to find out that it indeed kept the whole thing together. I was left with three parts: two rings and the plastic shade.
Took me a while but with some hot glue and ribbon I made a base lampshade again. And then with more hot glue I added the vintage table runner.
It pained me to cut the hand crocheted border off, but it needed be. I am sure I will use that border somewhere else some day.
For now. Welcome little lamp shade. I am happy to see you in my little reading room.
So got any embarrassing broken down things in your home? Would you have dared to have that lamp in the guest room and pretend it was supposed to look like that? Do you feel physical pain too when cutting into vintage fabrics?
Let’s talk….
Marianne Songbird is the founder of Songbird, where she hopes to inspire everyone to create a home they love, one DIY project at a time. She shares anything from craft ideas to home decor inspiration and from DIY projects to decorating hacks. Originally from the Netherlands Marianne and her husband Lex are currently renovating a 250-year-old farmhouse in Germany.
bec says
aww… this is so very cute!… It’s great that you have put a lovely old piece of linen to good use and to put it on show instead of keeping it stored away in a cupboard..
that does it! I’m cleaning out my linen cupboard.. to see what little precious things I can find.
Bec x
Marianne@Songbird says
Thank you! I love it too. I always need to get over the hurdle of actually using my vintage treasures, but when I do I am always glad I did. Have fun with the beauties in your linen cupboard.