A sad lamp to a GLAM lamp

One thing that has been on my to-do list for.....well, a really long time is giving the lamp in my living room a little makeover.  I still have a lot to do in my living room but baby steps, people, baby steps.  

What drives me cuh-razy about my living room is there is so much brown!  Brown sofa, brown loveseat, brown TV stand, brown end table, brown side chair, and brown lamp.  Well, since I'm not in the business of reupholstering, I figured the lamp would be a pretty easy fix. 

So this is what I was dealing with.....

Blah, blah, blaaaaaah.

I picked up some of this stuff.  I don't have a step by step to show you but I sprayed about 2 or 3 thin coats of primer then 3 coats of the silver spray paint. 

Sorry to break it to ya, but you're not gonna see the big reveal just yet!  Cuz, I ain't finished.  Next, I had to tackle that lamp shade.  I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do to it.  Should I cover it with fabric?  Should I add some type of embellishments?  Should I paint it?  Well, I was afraid I would have a hard time lining up the print if I used fabric.  With all of the cool ideas of embellishments on Pinterest, I was overwhelmed and couldn't decide what would work best so I decided to paint it.  Mainly because I already had everything I needed on hand.  

So one very trendy pattern that I have yet to use in my house is a chevron pattern.  So why not try to tape out a chevron pattern on the shade?  On Monday, while watching Dancing with the Stars and drinking 4 (or was it 5?) Bud Light Platinums,  I pulled out my frog tape and I whipped this bad boy out!  Note: this is just the tape, not the final product. 

So if you're wondering how I got all of my lines fairly straight......well, I eye-balled it.  I originally pulled out my tape measure and tried to figure out how I was going to get my lines straight mathematically but as I mentioned earlier, I was drinking 4 (or was it 6?) Bud Light Platinums.  I can't do math sober so what made me think I could do it with a buzz?  So I tossed my pretty little leopard print tape measure off to the side and tried my best to focus on these tedious lines.  They are far from perfect but I didn't necessarily want it perfect.  Those little imperfections will always be a constant reminder of 1) a great season premiere of Dancing with the Stars 2) some tasty BLP's after a not-so-great day and 3) it was created by ME!  Just to make sure that it was "good enough" before I began painting, I called over my Quality Control manager to inspect it.   

Good news.....it passed inspection!

Then I took some acrylic paint that I already had, added some water to it to thin in out, and painted on 2 coats.  

So you ready for the after pics?

It looks like the lamp shade is a bit cock-eyed in the pic on the left and that's because it is.  I promise, it's not my under the influence chevron pattern, something is a bit wonky with the shade and unfortunately I never really noticed it until I had a bold pattern on it.  

And just another reminder of what it looked like before: 

Isn't that better?

Here is an up-close view of the base of the lamp.  Since hammered metals are very popular right now, I thought it was a shame that I had this hammered metal lamp that was brown which is why I chose to paint it silver. 

And here is the same view as a few pics above but just different lighting which makes the silver really pop. 

I realize that it looks a little weird that this is the only metallic piece in a sea of brown that I have in my living room, but I'm currently working on a project that is going to be bringing lots more metallic into the room, ranging from silver to gold.  I bet you are DYING to know what it is.  Just dying.  Dying like those poor tributes in the Hunger Games which comes out this weekend, except not as brutal and not as bloody.  And WHY am I wanting to watch this movie so bad again???

I linked up to.....