Thursday, November 30, 2017

Evelyn's DIY Lamp and Plant Stand Makeovers



Hello Darlings,

Below are photos of my latest do it yourself projects that I started yesterday .

The first is the before photo of one of two old lamps.  They  stopped working because the sockets and the cords of the pair of lamps needed changing out. 

Brefore
In the second photo, is the mid-result after changing the sockets and cords. I added  15 foot cords with their own plugs because in many living areas there are not enough outlets. However, many of the older homes and apartments that do have 3 to 4 outlets in a room have them spaced too far from where you might need them.

After
Like my kitchen island trio makeover, I am still into the black and copper/chestnut decoration  stage. So I painted the peeling and fading gold portions of the lamps a metallic copper color, and because the paint was somewhat hard to cover over the gold, I used a sponge brush to texturize each coat. As you can see, they look great just as they are now. However,  I have made these left and right sided cardboard stencils that I plan to add to the front of each lamp for decoration and to easily let us know where the lamps knobs are at.
Homemade template -Bare Branches
I also purchased new shades, which I am thinking about painting copper on the side and black on the outside. I know that this color combination will reduce the amount of light when the lamps are on, but it is okay because I like low lit rooms.

Therefore, these lamps and their shades are still works in progress, and I will share the end results in the future.


As you can see from the photo above, my second project was to give this old rusting and peeling plant stand and its mates a makeover.

Below are the steps I took to make each of these junkyard looking stands into beautiful plant stands, which would perhaps be valued today at $20 to $25 each. Click any image to large for a clearer view.

The Tools:
1 scraper
several sheets of 120 - 180 sandpaper
3 -4 cans spray paint (cost $6 to $8)
plastic drop cloth, extra large
oil spray to prevent paint from sticking to the surrounding work area. (I use cooking oil)
a well vented work area
a roll of masking tape to prevent drop cloth from moving
lots of spare time and patience

Steps:
1.      clean and dry old plant stands.
2.      using scraper remove all old paint.



3.      sand to smooth unpainted plant stands and to remove any remaining old paint 


4.      moving to prepared work area.
5.      spray every parts of plant stands by following product's label instructions. 


 6.      allow plant stands to dry completed for overnight.

7.      in morning check for spots on the plant stands that still need additional paint. If needed,  follow steps 4 through 5 again.
To This!
From this!














 Wow, and now you're done!