Summa-summa-summer projects

I had been putting off a handful of projects for too long. At the beginning of the summer I made a to do list of all of the things I kept thinking "It would be nice to do [XYZ] to that" or "Gosh, I hate that. I need to fix it." Here we are with summer about to end and I am proud to say that I have crossed off almost all of the tasks on my list! Over the next couple of days I will be featuring some of these. I hope that you enjoy!


First up: The Hobby Lobby Lamp
I found this beauty at Hobby Lobby (thus the title). It was $17.99. But get this...it was marked down from $90!!! When I found it, it was not-so-much-a-beauty, in my opinion. But at $17.99, I knew that I could make this thing a loved object in my living room. So I paid the money, pulled some sandpaper and paint out of my closet, made a few minor repairs (which made it mark down from $90) and--BAM!--I got me a fancy lamp.

BEFORE

There were a couple of dings in the body of the lamp. The black shade, while a very elegant shape, was just too dark for my liking (I was able to find another use for it...I'll show that to you in a later post).The shape of the body, if you can see it well enough in this picture, is just beautiful. The dark wood-y look was just too dark for the rest of the room's decor.

AFTER

After sanding and priming the base of the lamp, I painted it a simple white. Pictures below show the exquisite detailing of this lamp. I like it so much! I replaced the round black shade with a square/pyramid shaped shade in a champagne-gold hue. Here are a few close ups of the lovely detail on the lamp:

I am still debating whether or not to put a gold patina finish over the white. We have been doing a bunch of painting in the house, so I have been waiting to decide on that until I see the white lamp against the newly painted walls. If I do decide to put on the extra finish, I will share it here. But for now, here is the currently-finished product:

Yes, that envelope says something about "$100" on it. Yes, it is junk mail.