I have been starring at this lampshade I brought from Target 4 years ago and with my urge to painting something new, I decided to get artsy and just have fun with it.

Having moved a couple times. the lampshade has suffered some cracks on the inside and some dents on the outside. The only reason I am holding onto this lampshade is because of the pretty marble base and the rose gold color. Not sure if its available anymore. I wanted to make it look pretty and hide those dinged spots and the best way I could think of, was to paint it.

i kept it simple and pained some bright abstract florals on the lampshade.

Supplies

Lampshade Texture

Before I list the supplies, I do want to mention a few things about the lampshade texture and the paint choices to go with it.

Outside

The outsides of the this lampshade drum is covered with fabric - specifically linen. Since I wanted to paint some floral patterns, I was debating between using fabric paint vs acrylic paint but decided to go with acrylic paints. Incase of fabric paint, it would involve curing the paint and washing it off with water to prevent paint wash off. I am not worried about this since I don't plan on washing the lampshade. I did not use any fabric medium to mix with the acrylic paint and mine looked just fine, no cracks.

Inside

The insides of the lampshade is made of Plastic. As I did not plan to make any designs on the inside, I just used spray paint on the inside.

Supplies

Acrylic Paint - regular and neon shades
Spray Paint
Flat Paint Brush
Glass Paint Marker Pen - for detailing
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Hair Dryer - Optional

Step 1: Painting Insides

First thing I did was to remove the bulb. Next, there is a tiny screw that separates the stick the drum. I unscrewed and took apart the drum. This made it a lot easier to spray paint it.

Painting insides of the lampshade was fairly straightforward. I wanted to reduce the light/brightness coming from the lampshade. So chose more of a darker blue shade. I used the following spray paint that is easily available in Home Depot.

Ink Blue (Satin) - Rust Oleum - Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover - Paint +Primer

Steps

I spread some drop cloth and spray painted a coat on the inside. I was not worried about it getting on the outside as I planned to spray paint on the outside blue as well.
After letting it dry from around all sides (about 30 mins), I sprayed another coat.
Let it dry for about an hour.

Step 2: Painting Outside - Layer 1 - Blue Backdrop

Once the spray paint dried, next step was to paint the outside of the lampshade and I used acrylic paint In order to create my design, I had to work up in layers allowing my paint to dry. The first layer was to make a plain blue backdrop.

Steps

Again, chose a darker color - dark bright blue that almost matched the spray paint color.
I repeated multiple coats (3-4) to get a thick layer to create more opacity. I also placed the lampshade with the bulb to take a look for any lighter areas/patches and covered them again with several coats.
Just used a regular flat brush and did vertical strokes versus going sideways. My paint brush is smooth and I really tried to smoothen the strokes as much as possible.
I used a hair dryer to dry some in-between coats but then let it dry for few hours after the last coat.

Step 3: Painting Outside - Layer 2 - Brush Stroke Accents

The blue backdrop had dried completely and looked more smoother. I checked for cracks and there were none. Next, I proceeded to work on my second layer - vertical brush stroke accents in various shades of green.

Steps

The idea was to get some abstract greenery by painting some vertical greenish blue blocks. Just using plain light and dark green on the blue backdrop would be too contrasting so I decided to blend colors.

I mixed some acrylic paints - and was able to get some beautiful shades of blue green color - teal, turquoise, bright and light green etc. I had nothing specific in mind as long as I was getting some greenish blue shades.
- Dark Green + Blue (1:1) = Cyan
- Dark Green + White (1:1) = Light Dark Green
- Light Dark Green + White (1:1) = Lighter Dull Green
- Blue + White + Green (2:1:2))= Teal
- Teal + Blue + White (1:1:1) = Turquoise
Using the same smooth flat brush, I created vertical brush strokes accent extending them from going top to bottom and bottom to top.
With the same technique, I overlapped creating vivid stroked. Didn't kill myself if they were not perfect, the whole point was to have fun with it.
Carefully repeated the with another coating to make them look brighter. Let it dry overnight.

Step 4: Painting Outside - Layer 3 - Brush Stroke Florals

Next morning, everything had dried up and this was the part I was waiting for the most - paint some bright colorful florals.

Steps

I used some acrylic paints and chose bright shades that would go well with blue backdrop
- Matte Orange
- Red + very little White (4:1) = Rose
- Matte Orange + White (1:1) - Light Peach
- Neon Pink + White (1:1) = Bright Pink
- Neon Yellow + White (1:1)= Bright Yellow
Using the same smooth flat brush, I created single diagonal brush strokes accent by going left to right and right o left diagonal. Again, not too perfect.
Repeated with multiple colors and created some abstract flowers.
Let it dry completely for few hours.

Step 5: Painting Outside - Final Details

Last step was to use a fine tip marker pen to draw some stems as I am not that good when it comes to painting fine print. Also using a pen, gave a better definition and I had a better control of the design.

I tried multiple markers but the glass paint marker pen worked best on acrylic/fabric surface.

Steps

Using the fine tip, I was able to quickly draw the stems, connecting the flowers - this step only took couple minutes. This is when everything stated abstract color blobs started to look like blooms.
Using the marker again, I gave drew the on the stems again, giving it another coat.
Added some flowery details on the insides of a few flowers petals.

Step 6: Sealing It

I was already happy with the outcome and the colors did look pretty bright. Just to make sure the color doesn't fade, I used mod podge to seal it. Mod-podge really helps to seal acrylic paint onto the fabric by adhering to it, prevent possible cracks and also added brilliance.

Steps

Once all the paint had dried, I applied a thin coat of Mod-Podge on the lampshade using a think foam brush.
Let it dry for 20-30 minutes and applied a second coat. I will wait couple weeks and may be give it another coat if needed.

And that's it!! Overall, I was happy that I decided to keep the colors dark, do multiple coating of paint job so the lampshade is opaque filtering almost no light through it. I had not patchy spots/ irregularities that may appear due to the painting process. The lampshade looked really pretty, florals popped in a very abstract way which is what I was going for.

This lampshade definitely brings strong spring vibes in the dead of fall.

Thank you for checking out my Instructable. Hope you like it!