Step 8: PAINTING THE SHADE
For a little added pizzaz I had the idea of painting the lampshade. You can buy patterned shades but they can be kind of pricey so I'm taking a cheap off the shelf shade and jazzing it up with some light blue spray paint which is the same that is on the lamp body.
This lamp will sit on a side table which I did a few years ago. The table is light blue with pink stripes and flowers painted on the top. To coordinate I'm painting stripes on the shade that go with the stripes on the table.
DOING THE STRIPES THE HARD WAY
Now I could have used the same method that I used for the glass and used a strip of paper and folded it to determine the strips but for reasons that i can't explain, i went with the hard way and used math. I say "hard way" but i've always been good at geometry (i'm an architect) so this was actually pretty easy for me and I honetly don't think it took any more time than other methods.
MEASURE THE DIAMETER OF THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE SHADE.
the first thing i did was measure the top and bottom diameter of the shade. For this shade the top diameter is 7" and the bottom diameter is 17". The next step is to calculate the circumferance. the formula for circumferance is 2 x pi x radius or pi x diameter.
Using that formula I calulate a circumgerance for the top at 22" and 53.4" for the bottom. After doing some napkin sketch's I decide to divide the shade in 18 stripes. if you use the folding method you would divide into 16 stripes (4 folds). The number of stripes has to be an even number so yuo get a perfect repeat of stripe-space-stripe. Doing some more math i take the circumferance for the top and the bottom and come up with a stripe with for the top and the bottom. Because the top diameter is smaller than the bottom diameter the stripes are narrower on the top and wider on the bottom...i.e. tapered.
So now I stretch out 2 strips of tape on a table. I mark the first length of the circumferance of the top and bottom. Then I measured and mark the stripe locations on each tape strip.
USE THE SHADE SEAM AS REFERENCE POINT FOR THE TOP AND BOTTOM STRIPE MARKS.
Once I've marked the stripe locations for the top tape strip I align the first mark with the shade seam and the srap the tape around the shade. Using a pencil i lightly marked each strip point.
Becuase the bottom stripe points are wider than the top, the bottom marks don't line up with the top. To figure out a starting point I took the bottom stripe width and subtracted the top stripe width, then divided that number by 2. Then starting at the shade seam I measured back that distance, and that's where I aligned the first stripe mark. Again using a pencil I marked each stripe location.
USE TAPE TENSION TO MAKE SURE STRIPES ARE STRAIGHT.
In order to mask the shade, I started by aligning painters tape to one side of the upper mark, then aligned the tape to the inside of the bottom mark. keep tension on the tape to keep it straight. Once the tape is down then run your finger along the edge to make sure the edge is down and smooth. If you get any wrinkles in the tape then pull it up and redo. Once I had the first stripe taped, it didn't take very long to work my way around the shade and tape all the edges. I just had to be really careful to make sure the tape was on the correct side of the marks so that the stripes will be correct.
Once the stripes are taped mask off the inside of the shade to protect against over spray.
Keep your spray even by keeping your hand the same distance from the shade and moving at a constant speed. I didn't want the paint to be heavy so I only did one pass on this. Any imperfections in the paint will be very apparant once light is going thru it so I just took my time and made sure that the paint was even.
I was worried that because of the texture on the shade fabric that the spray paint would bleed through and I'd have a ragged edge but I was very pleased that the edge was perfect. I think because I painted fairly light and the shade soaked up all the paint, it didn't bleed a bit.
This lamp will sit on a side table which I did a few years ago. The table is light blue with pink stripes and flowers painted on the top. To coordinate I'm painting stripes on the shade that go with the stripes on the table.
DOING THE STRIPES THE HARD WAY
Now I could have used the same method that I used for the glass and used a strip of paper and folded it to determine the strips but for reasons that i can't explain, i went with the hard way and used math. I say "hard way" but i've always been good at geometry (i'm an architect) so this was actually pretty easy for me and I honetly don't think it took any more time than other methods.
MEASURE THE DIAMETER OF THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE SHADE.
the first thing i did was measure the top and bottom diameter of the shade. For this shade the top diameter is 7" and the bottom diameter is 17". The next step is to calculate the circumferance. the formula for circumferance is 2 x pi x radius or pi x diameter.
Using that formula I calulate a circumgerance for the top at 22" and 53.4" for the bottom. After doing some napkin sketch's I decide to divide the shade in 18 stripes. if you use the folding method you would divide into 16 stripes (4 folds). The number of stripes has to be an even number so yuo get a perfect repeat of stripe-space-stripe. Doing some more math i take the circumferance for the top and the bottom and come up with a stripe with for the top and the bottom. Because the top diameter is smaller than the bottom diameter the stripes are narrower on the top and wider on the bottom...i.e. tapered.
So now I stretch out 2 strips of tape on a table. I mark the first length of the circumferance of the top and bottom. Then I measured and mark the stripe locations on each tape strip.
USE THE SHADE SEAM AS REFERENCE POINT FOR THE TOP AND BOTTOM STRIPE MARKS.
Once I've marked the stripe locations for the top tape strip I align the first mark with the shade seam and the srap the tape around the shade. Using a pencil i lightly marked each strip point.
Becuase the bottom stripe points are wider than the top, the bottom marks don't line up with the top. To figure out a starting point I took the bottom stripe width and subtracted the top stripe width, then divided that number by 2. Then starting at the shade seam I measured back that distance, and that's where I aligned the first stripe mark. Again using a pencil I marked each stripe location.
USE TAPE TENSION TO MAKE SURE STRIPES ARE STRAIGHT.
In order to mask the shade, I started by aligning painters tape to one side of the upper mark, then aligned the tape to the inside of the bottom mark. keep tension on the tape to keep it straight. Once the tape is down then run your finger along the edge to make sure the edge is down and smooth. If you get any wrinkles in the tape then pull it up and redo. Once I had the first stripe taped, it didn't take very long to work my way around the shade and tape all the edges. I just had to be really careful to make sure the tape was on the correct side of the marks so that the stripes will be correct.
Once the stripes are taped mask off the inside of the shade to protect against over spray.
Keep your spray even by keeping your hand the same distance from the shade and moving at a constant speed. I didn't want the paint to be heavy so I only did one pass on this. Any imperfections in the paint will be very apparant once light is going thru it so I just took my time and made sure that the paint was even.
I was worried that because of the texture on the shade fabric that the spray paint would bleed through and I'd have a ragged edge but I was very pleased that the edge was perfect. I think because I painted fairly light and the shade soaked up all the paint, it didn't bleed a bit.
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