How To Cover A Lampshade With Fabric
How To Cover A Lampshade With Fabric – My daughter Sammie loves thrifting. She spotted a cute lamp (that had a stained lampshade) and the lightbulbs went off. Get fabric and upcycle it! Dorm room lamp makeover.
Today I’m sharing her DIY lampshade makeover! With fabric, trims, a glue gun, and glue sticks you can easily upcycle a lampshade. Anyone can make over a lampshade for a new look or to make it look new again.
DIY Lampshade Makeover
Have you ever wanted to cover your lampshade? To give it a new look, cover stains, or repair the lampshade cover? It’s really easy to upcycle lampshades. No sewing is involved! (unless you want to sew the hem seams).
This is a no-sew upcycled lampshade project. Sammie gave her lamp vintage vibes by using cute fabric. She worked on the project before moving back to college. And took the side table lamp with her for her apartment bedroom(at college).
Pick fabrics you like or fabrics that are trending to cover a lampshade. She spotted gingham fabric which is really trendy right now. Do you like a retro or vintage aesthetic?
Upcycle Lampshade
Supplies
- Lampshade
- Fabric (gingham fabric) or other fabric
- Iron This is my favorite iron I’ve ever owned!
- And ironing board, tabletop ironing board, or folded thick towel.
- Eyelet Trims (optional)
- Hot Glue Gun and glue sticks
- Fabric/Sewing Measuring Tape
- Fabric Scissors
- Finger Guard Protectors, a pencil, a dowel, or tweezers like this
Tips For Covering A Lampshade
- Don’t pick a stiff fabric! You can’t turn it under to make seams.
- Use finger glue gun protectors, a pencil, a dowel, or tweezers to hold the fabric in place when it is hot.
- Hold trims up to the lamp to see how it will look (with your lampshade and fabric) before finishing the project.
- You don’t have to prewash the fabric!
Unless it needs washing. But, then you will need to iron it. - We didn’t need to remove the lampshade to work on this project but you can!
- Additionally, you can buy a new lampshade (if one is missing or broken). Cover it to upcycle the lamp with the fabric of your choice.
How To Cover A Lampshade With Fabric
Instructions
Step By Step Instructions With Images
- Measure the lampshade using the fabric measuring tape.
- Pick enough fabric to cover the lampshade. For the best results, add a few inches extra of fabric. The fabric will extend around horizontally and vertically.
- Iron the fabric. This is important! You don’t want wrinkles on the lampshade cover. Do this for all thicknesses of fabric.
- Use the hot iron to create a hem.
To make it finish neatly; trim it straight. You can fold it over one more time and trim the excess fabric.
- After measuring around the lamp and making the hem, cut off the excess fabric leaving a few inches.
- First glue down one side of the seam (top to bottom – vertically).
- Next, glue down the hem at the top of the lampshade.
- After going all the way around the top; next, glue the hem to match the seams going vertically on the lamp (see next image).
- Then cut off the excess bottom fabric. But, leave enough to turn and hem the base of the lamp.
Matching The Seams Up On The Lampshade!
Fold over the fabric before gluing. It’s hot be careful. Use finger protectors to protect your fingers. And for when you are holding the hot glued fabric in place! Hold the glued fabric in place for a few minutes after gluing, until it adheres securely. Smoothing out hems as you go along.
This is easier to do as you go along and harder to smooth out once the glue has completely dried. Note, if the glue hasn’t dried and you make a mistake you can pull it off and smooth it out again. Don’t pull too much if you have a pattern like this. We made sure the lines were straight as we went along.
- It’s easy to cover a dirty or damaged lampshade.
- Finish the project with trims.
- Sammie picked eyelet trim like this to give it a vintage look.
- The combination of a modern lamp base and vintage top gives the lampshade a new look with retro vintage vibes.
Tada! It’s that easy to do!
Pin it for later!
Tag us @DearCreatives on Instagram or Twitter with your lamp makeovers! With the leftover fabric, I am going to make her some things for her dorm room to send her. Throw pillows for her bed, coasters, a zipper pouch for pencils…
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Have you ever covered a lampshade with fabric or other materials?
