I get so many compliments on the floor lamp in my living room. One of the biggest compliments I get is whenever I see my lamp in designs featured in magazines or on design shows. I love it too! I actually put my own personal stamp on my lamp when I decided the lamp needed a colored shade.   Instead of painting the lampshade, I wrapped it with ribbon.  A ribbon wrapped lampshade is a simple option for those plain ole white shades.  It also allowed me to inject color into the room.   This one was easy guys.  You can do this one in an afternoon.

I was actually inspired by a project Sarah Richardson (a design goddess) did on her show many years ago. She simply wrapped a lampshade with ribbon and created a shade cover of sorts. I believe her lamp was a table lamp and so the shade was not as large as mine, but I felt confident the project would be just as easy.

This project is a perfect for a thrift store find.

Ribbon Wrapped Lampshade

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The Lamp

Here’s a lamp almost identical to mine.  It’s a simple, yet architecturally pleasing to the eye.  But I gotta throw shade on that shade!  (Sorry I had to do it.  It was just too easy.  Ahem)  I think we can do a little better.  Don’t you?

Let’s Get Wrapping

I was right!  This project was ridiculously easy.  I chose a 1″ yellow-gold grosgrain ribbon, tied it to one of the spines in the top of the lampshade and simply wrapped it continuously around the shade.  Once I had gone all the way around the shade, I tied off the end of ribbon to the other spine.  Yep, that’s all there is to it.  Easy-peasy!

Buy lots of ribbon!

Oh, I almost forgot.  Buy a lot of ribbon!  I can’t stress that enough.  It might seem like it won’t take much ribbon to cover the shade, but experience has taught me that it takes much more than you think.  So over-buy on the ribbon.  You can always use the remnants to wrap birthday gifts later.Now I will say this project is long on time investment.  It does take time to wrap the shade all the way around while lining up the ribbon to overlap evenly.  So don’t expect to whip through this part in a few minutes.  You might find yourself unwrapping and rewrapping along the way.  Just take your time.  But it is foolproof because it’s easy to make corrections.

Another Way

I didn’t use any adhesive when for my ribbon wrapped lampshade and thankfully I don’t think it was needed.  But here is a video of some smart ladies that back their ribbon with an adhesive.  This might make the project go faster.  Check it out.

The Golden Shade

Here’s my lamp again.

One of the things I loved about this project is it is a temporary transformation.  If I ever what to change to a different color all I will need to do is buy more ribbon.  One last point, covering the shade with the ribbon also protects the original shade.  I’ll bet if I were to unravel the ribbon the shade probably still looks brand new.

So what do you think?  Are you just going to let your lampshades go bare or will you give them new life with a wrap session?  Have you ever covered your lampshades?  Please, show-and-tell.  Leave me a comment below with pictures of your shady project.

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