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After a few weeks without posting (life happens!), here's my latest DIY project! I found an old brass chandelier at the thrift store a couple weeks back, and I gave it a face lift for my daughter's nursery. I then went on a search for lampshades, and I found some clip-on ones at a thrift store. The shades just needed a little DIY makeover. See the lampshade before & after here! Stay tuned for a separate post with pictures of the finished chandelier!

I needed 5 clip-on lampshades to finish off my chandelier project. First, I found some unfinished empire lampshades at Hobby Lobby. Empire shades are the typical shape you see: small at the top, larger at the bottom. Using a 40% off coupon, each would be $2.99. I picked up one of them to see if I liked the lampshade idea with the chandelier. Looked good, but I wanted a cheaper alternative!

I stopped by two thrift stores the other day to see what I could find. At the first one, I found a set of 5 clip-on bell-shaped shades. The curve of the bell shape was a little fancier than I needed, but they were a nice color and almost like new. They were $2 each, however. Cheaper than the craft store, but I thought $10 for thrift store lampshades was much too expensive (super frugal momma here! :)

Luckily, the next thrift store I went to had a set of 5 simple clip-on empire shades...for $0.90 each! And to my surprise, the price tag color was half off that day! $0.45 for a lamp shade...I'll take 'em! (No matter how ugly they are!)

For only $2.39 with tax, I came home with 5 shades and lots of possibilities! Here's what I did...

STEP 1: I removed the fringe and also removed the trim. I wanted a bare lampshade to start with.lampshade_1

STEP 2: I spray painted the inside white. I wanted the inside of the shade to match the color I painted my chandelier. The original yellow color looked very outdated.

STEP 3: I wrapped my shades with twine I found in the barn (yes, actual twine used to tie up hay bales...we have a ton, and best of all it was FREE!). I used a hot glue gun to adhere the twine to the shade. I then took scissors and cut off as much of the twine fringy, scraggly pieces as I could. Actual twine isn't like the nice, clean string you find in the craft store...it's pretty rugged! Didn't want any of the scragglies to catch on fire!

STEP 4: I wrapped the bottom of each shade in white and gray ribbon to match the paint color of the chandelier and the wall color of the nursery.

STEP 5: I made and hot-glued fabric roses to the shade. I also glued on little green petals too. And TA DA!

Take a look at the finished chandelier!