From frumpish to fab – weekend magic tricks….

This weekend we tackled a couple of DIY do up projects. The first was a bookshelf much in need of a little TLC and the second, a dated faded lamp-shape that didn’t go with anything.

I delegated the bookshelf to my husband for sanding and paint prep…. Before I knew it he had painted it too, so that’s a big plus! First step involved paint stripper and good old fashioned sanding back…. when the paint stripper had trouble removing the nasty old paint from the back board it was decided we should remove the back completely. Last couple of steps involved several layers of blackboard paint and a few days drying time. Now we have a mini bookshelf and a note-board in one!

Nasty faded lampshade!

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I brought this lamp about 10 years ago and since then the vibrant orange recycled paper lampshade of my carefree youth has faded to a dated, out-of-style soft dusty peach.

If that wasn’t bad enough on close inspection it had a million & one tiny, perfect perforations clustered near the base of the shade. ‘What’s that all about??????’ well, over the years my cat has on a number of occasions mistaken the dusty peach coloured lamp as something tasty. Luckily she has grown out of that bad habit and has since moved onto worse habits.

This was my project. I had kept a brightly coloured kitsch tea towel that had frayed around the edges in my trimmings box for exactly this type of project……

A little bit of double sided tape, a little hot glue, a bit of snip snip, and voila the lamp is complete!

All that was left was a little ‘window dressing’ swap out the antique mirror for a little kitschy art (one of mine C.2008), put the books and trinkets on the shelves…..

TAH DAH! Just like a magic trick.