Okay, so you guys might think I’m completely crazy, but I have a thing for soap dispensers. When I told Greg I wanted to write a post about this, he thought I was nuts. But oh well, it’s Friday, so why not spread the crazy on the internet. After all, it’s the internet.
Around here, we’re partial to vintage-style dispensers and we even like to switch them out once in a while. There are even some great disposable bottled soaps out there that not only have packaging designed well enough to display, but also have some really nice-smelling soap in them. Either way, soap dispensers are an easy way to freshen up your sink area and add a little personality to an otherwise boring space. I think that’s why I like them so much. Does that make me weird? Probably. But that’s okay, right?
For the past few weeks, we’ve been on the hunt for a lamp for the new foyer table. Everything we found was either too small, not the right material, or not the style we were looking for. I was laying in bed the other night, going through old photos on my cell phone when I stumbled on this photo of a lamp I spotted at Tuesday Morning way back in August…
Yeah, I take photos while I shop. I’m weird like that. The shade wouldn’t have worked for our style, but the base was to die for. It was big, chunky, looked kind of like reclaimed wood (my favorite material of all time), and was the perfect color. In other words, it was my dream lamp. Knowing things come and go through Tuesday Morning every week (just like Home Goods and TJ Maxx), I knew there was no possible way they would still have it almost eight months later. All hope was lost on the lamp of my dreams. Lesson officially learned.
The day after I found the photo, Greg and I were out running some errands and decided to stop by Tuesday Morning to have a look around. Having had my oh-my-goodness-I-should-have-bought-that-lamp meltdown the night before, I made a beeline to the lamps section. Nothing really caught my eye but just as I was about to walk away, all the way in the back of the top shelf… THE lamp. I was in total disbelief and pretty much squealed like a 13-year-old on the front row at a One Direction concert. To make the find even sweeter, the lamp was originally $199, marked down to $150, then down to $95, then down to $65. That’s when the Hallelujah Chorus started playing.
When we got out to the car, I texted this photo of Greg holding the lamp in the air to my mom (who shares my love for interior design and good finds). Needless to say, Greg and I were two happy campers.
As soon as we got home, we sat her on the foyer table and switched out the lamp shade for a simple white drum shade (from Target). Even though the white drum shade was the right shape and looked better than the “leafy” one that came on it, it didn’t have the razzle dazzle we were looking for. We shopped around for colorful lamp shades, but everything we found was either the wrong size or shape. That’s when it dawned on me… make one!
I remembered seeing this awesome Ikat shower curtain from Target’s Threshold line (who, by the way, has really been hitting it out of the park lately!). I absolutely loved it, but we didn’t have need for a new shower curtain. My next thought was it would make great fabric for curtains or even throw pillows or… why not a lamp shade? It had to be done.
Because this particular shade isn’t tapered (the sides are completely straight), I didn’t have to worry about tracing the fabric perfectly to the shape of the shade. All I had to do was make sure the piece was about an inch and a half taller than the shade on both sides.
I left the shower curtain folded and marked the cut line with a fine point Sharpie. Then I cut the curtain while it was still folded. Leaving it folded made the cutting process a lot faster, less cumbersome and I only had to draw one short, straight line. There were a few little jagged edges here and there, but that didn’t matter because it would be on the inside of the shade.
The fabric had a few creases from being folded on the shelf, so I ran an iron over it a few times. I learned later that this step was so, so, so important. If you have crisp, flat fabric, it will make the process of applying the fabric to the shade much easier. After it was ironed, I cut the fabric to the length I needed for it to go around the shade once, plus an inch of overlap at the end.
In comes the Tacky Spray. I’ve never used this stuff before, so I was kind of very nervous about how I’d actually go about getting the fabric on the shade without any creases, wrinkles or glue puddles. Not wanting to get a fine mist of glue all over the kitchen, we took it outdoors and sprayed the outside of the lamp shade. And boy are we glad we did. It even made Greg’s shirt and arms a bit tacky (luckily, it washed right off!). After the shade was covered, we rushed it back in the kitchen to work on the clean, smooth countertop. The next part of the process had to happen fast. It took four hands, too, so in lieu of a photo, I drew up a little diagram…
Greg stood on one side of the kitchen peninsula and pulled the shower curtain fabric toward him, keeping it tight and straight. I pulled the other end of the fabric toward me and pressed the fabric on the shade as I rolled it toward Greg, while making sure I kept the fabric really taught and rubbing out any folds or bubbles along the way. I also made sure the finished edge ended up on the top to give the back of the shade a nice, professional, finished look.
After the shade was completely covered with fabric, we let it sit for about 10 minutes to give the glue a chance to settle. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to move the fabric when I went to fold down the edges.
When it came to the edges, Greg ran outside to spray a bit more of the glue along the inside edges of the shade and brought it back in for me to work on. Then, I simply pulled the excess fabric up and over the edge of the shade. Luckily, the Tacky Spray was pretty forgiving. If I didn’t pull the fabric quite taught enough, I was able to pull it back up and over the edge again, to make sure it was good and tight.
When I got to the metal frame, I cut a small slit in the fabric, a few centimeters from the edge, and folded it around the wire. A fold here, a fold there, and…
Ta da!!! Now, that’s a nice looking lamp if I do say so myself. I’m completely, head over heals in love with it.
So, thank you, Target for making ultra awesome shower curtains. Not only is the design awesome, the stiffness of the shower curtain fabric came in handy during the whole process. So, in my opinion, if you’re looking to cover a lampshade with fabric, I highly recommend shower curtains, haha.
We’re both really, really happy with how it turned out, and I love the look on people’s faces when I tell them the shade was covered with a shower curtain. Greg, who was completely skeptical about this to begin with, is a typical guy when it comes to decorating most of the time. But almost every time he walks through the foyer, he says something like, “That really does look good!”. That’s an A+ in my book!
Today, we’re back with an update on the foyer progress! Since our chat with Sabrina, we’ve been able to find the essential “base pieces” we needed. We still have a few more things to find this week, but here’s where we are now…
First up, we have the Distressed Metal Sofa Table from Target. I’ve been eyeing this table for months. Before we got it in, our plan was to replace the glass tops with reclaimed wood planks, but when we put the table together, we liked the glass tops a lot more than we thought we would. On top of that, Sabrina suggested that we mix glass and reflective surfaces with natural elements, so, we decided to run with it.
The table size looks like it was made for the wall. It’s the perfect size and depth. I’m super anxious to dress it up with a lamp, a few books and other pretty things. We might also re-finish the frame of the table with some RustOleum Hammered Spray Paint to give it a more even finish and a less “distressed” look. That said, we’re going to wait on that until everything else is put into place.
Next, we have a mirror we picked up a while back (this one from Lowe’s). It’s so heavy, so Greg used drywall anchors when he hung this bad boy.
The bronze color with black undertones ties in well with the table without being “matchy matchy”. The frame is made out of wood, but totally looks like weathered metal in person. We’ve only had it hung for a few days, and everyone that has seen it wants to marry it.
Sabrina suggested we hang some large wall art on the wall across from the front door. Rather than going with one big piece, we picked up three 18″ x 18″ gallery frames. Hanging them together will have the same impact of one large piece of art. Our plan is to fill them with old black and white family photos. There’s a super cute photo of my great grandparents just after they got married (my great grandma was just 15!) that I’ve been dying to put somewhere in the house.
Knowing the silver frames weren’t going to show up very well against the gray wall, we spray painted them with a few coats of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. Now they tie in nicely with the table and the mirror.
So, yeah, at this point, everything is the same color. Keep in mind this is just the “base” of the space. Color is on the horizon, I promise. A fun lamp shade, a few colorful books, a knick knack or two, and we’ll be in business. As for what’s up next on the to-do list…
Find a table lamp. Preferably one made with natural materials.
