Red lamp
I got to do something for me yesterday. I spray painted an op shop lamp for no other reason than that I finally saw one worth painting and I’d like to be the sort of person who spray paints lamps. I didn’t *need* one in my office, but it does fit very nicely. Pictures:
The lamp as it came from the op shop – no shade and a peachy/coral colour.
This is how it looked once I found a new lampshade from Bunnings. They have a good selection of very basic, cheap lamp shades. This shade was $17 and is quite large.
Ready to paint. My materials were Easy Surface Prep, red spray paint, and a lint fee cloth. The ESP was to get the spray paint to stick to the ceramic. I have no idea if I needed it, but the Bunnings staff member recommended it and my paint certainly stuck with no issues.
After five to seven light coats. I lost track, and did quite a bit of carefully adding paint in areas that were patchy, like at the base. I got a can of spray paint that could be sprayed at any angle, and I highly recommend it. I’m sure it made the job *much* easier.
The finished lamp in place.
The finished lamp close up.
This was not a cheap project, but also not very expensive. The lamp base was $12, the ESP was $15, the lampshade was $17, and the spray paint was $10, so $54 all up. However that’s a pretty cheap lamp for this size. Also, the ESP and spray paint can both be used again, although I can see myself using the ESP more than the paint. If I had the ESP on hand the total would have been $39.
It *was* a quick project. I bought the supplies in the morning and took the ‘after’ pictures in the evening. I was pleased by how quickly the work went. There was a bit of waiting between applying the ESP and starting painting, and waiting an hour for the paint to become touch dry, but only about 40 minutes of hands on work.
Someday you will see a post about refinishing that chest of drawers the lamp sits on. I’m really looking forward to the day I get to start that project.
You may have noticed that I tried the lamp on both the left (first picture) and right (second last picture). I have no particular design sense, but I think the left was more balanced. Do you have an opinion?
