It all started with the bookcase, which had a domino
effect that spilled over to this project: tinting lampshades.
I think I had about 6 projects going at the same time yesterday,
but this one is soooo easy, you may want to try it for yourself
for an instant lift to your decor. These lampshades are old shades
that came off of an expensive antique chandelier from a brownstone
in Boston's upper crusty Back Bay. I was keeping my fingers crossed
that they were in good enough shape to dye. Sometimes fragile fabric
can fall apart from the weight of the water, so beware. I had one extra
shade to practice on, so I could keep them white if it failed.
Most of you will probably tint newer shades, so lets get on with
the how tos of tinting your shades.
Its super easy to tint or dye fabric lampshades.
I took an inexpensive chip brush
and dipped it into my can of Duck Egg Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan.
The chip brush is used because it doesn't hold a lot of paint/water.
I placed the loaded paint brush into this pyrex mixing cup and added about
a 1/4 cup of water and stirred it using the brush until it was all dissolved
and I had a lovely watercolored batch in this pretty shade of greeny blue.
Then using the chip brush, I just held the lampshade over the sink and stroked
the exterior of the shade with the paint brush and rotated it and kept
stroking paint over the outside until it was all covered.
Then I set them on a folded paper towel to dry. The watery paint
mix settled at the bottom and the excess was absorbed by the towels.
This is where my project day began, right here in the living room
Ever since I moved the blue opaline chandelier into the living room
I wanted to change the color of the back of the bookcases from grey to
a color that would echo the color in the chandelier. It couldn't be as
brilliant as the opaline, so I thought I would experiment with Annie's
Duck Egg. Her colors have a sophistication about them, and this color is
a beautiful vintage robin's egg color that might be perfect. And it was!
You can see the left side is original grey, Paris Grey in fact, and the
right is the Duck Egg. Hubby's hockey gear is in front of the fireplace
as it was getting warmed up before he was heading out to play.
Real life stuff. Anyway, I also wanted to try to make my bookcases
a little bit more coordinated, so as I painted all the contents got removed.
I would "shop" my own stuff to reconfigure the cases for a prettier look.
The paint is still drying, on both the bookcases and the sconce shades.
I test drove the shade and I loved it!! Now all I had to do was figure out
how I was going to put things back, what to edit and what to keep.
Books belong in bookcases but they can look messy and busy.
I had family photos and some small pieces of artwork that I wanted
to use in addition to my book collection.
I found that color coordinating the book jackets seemed to do the
trick, and the result was soft and pretty.
The Duck Egg Chalk Paint
tied the whole room together and the coordinating shades
were the little cherries on the top!
I made a few other changes in this room
and will be back when those are ready to share.
My blog friend, artist Cindy Austin, tinted her lampshades
with Chalk Paint too. Really pretty, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment