Saw It, Pinned It, Did it #7

So glad that I finally had time to be a little crafty again so I can link up with the  Katie at Keep Calm & Carry On and Steph @ Beautiful Mess for Saw it, Pinned it, Did it!

I do not like the bright overhead lights in my office, so I use the under-the-hutch lights on my desk units and two lamps to light my little work area.... however one corner has gotten exceptionally dark since I added a second monitor (btw, dual-desktops make design and multi-tasking SUPER easy).

So, I decided to buy another lap... but I had a budget of about $10. So I hit up Target... where every lamp was around $15. Then I saw one hideous lamp on clearance for $8 and  remembered where I'd seen a pin about covering lap base with a sweater sleeve, and I thought hey, I could buy an ugly lamp with a square bottom and cover it with some fabric. So I bought the lamp, grabbed some fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby and went from there.

Original Pin:

Source: ritamay-days.blogspot.com via Rita on Pinterest

My lamp:

Cheap lamp

Fabric
Scissors
Hot Glue
Tape (unless you have twelve hands)

1. Take lamp shade off, if it's attached, you'll need to unscrew it. This step is so you can fit the fabric onto the base.

2. Cut a hole in your fabric to fit over the bulb piece. You're going to "wrap" the base like a present so just lay the fabric over the top and cut a little place that can be easily mended with tape on the back side.

see, just a little nick in the fabric right on top!

3. Wrap the fabric around the base and use a piece of tape to secure it on the bottom before cutting another slot for the cord to slide through. 

painters tape is a great tape to hold fabric tight without leaving goo-ey stuff behind.

this isn't too pretty, but that side is definitely facing the wall!

4. Wrap the sides like a present and secure with hot glue! I have no idea how to explain that but to say, just wrap the edges like you wrap the short sides of a present box.. sorry. The key is to be sure your fabric is tight, especially if your lamp is hollow in the middle like this one.

5. Plug in your lamp and enjoy! This project cost me a grand total of $10.45 since I got the lamp for $8 and the fabric on sale for $2.45!