Mix and match: Lampshades

Remember the lamp that I repainted? If you read that post, then you might have noticed in the pictures (and the prose, if you are one of the few who still reads these days and not just looks at pictures...I am guilty of it too)--Anyways, you may have noticed that I swapped the original black shade for a new champagne one.

Old, black shade

New, champagne shade

So, when I finished the lamp, I had a lampless shade (*tear*). I was a bit confused on what to do with it. Throwing it away seemed wasteful. Giving it away seemed a bit cold, shouldn't I give a lamp with the lampshade? But then again, even though I didn't like the original lamp with the black shade, I actually thought that the black shade was, well, kind of chic. Elegant. I kind of wanted to use it somewhere in my house.

I wandered about my house for about 20 minutes trying the shade out on different lamps; I wasn't too impressed with anything. Then, I looked into dining room, and the clouds parted and I knew what I was going to do with the black, lampless shade.



Fuzzy, I know. It's the best I've got. Sorry.



I never did like the old school, 1980s glass shades that were on our ceiling fan. Before this particular day, I figured that the ceiling fan would be a lost cause in our rented home. But today, today was a special day. With the black shade close behind, I whipped out my Phillips screwdriver, took off the tulip-y bulb cups (I really have no idea what the correct term is for those things), and tied the black shade up there with the help of some discrete, sheer ribbon. And now we have this:

I am really glad that my roommates liked my idea, because I really, no--really--like it. It really makes a huge difference in the room. As you can see, the inner lining of the shade is a gold satin-y number. This means that there is a beautiful gold highlight that comes through the black shade when the light is on. It gives an ambiance to the room. It also matchs the black frames of the table and chairs!

I am so happy with the way it turned out. Seriously, it has been more than a month since I did this change and I still feel happy whenever I see it. I feel especially happy when the light is on because then the gold is more visible. Magnifique!!

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