My scrap wood lamp with hand painted shade

YEAH! My project that I have been so excited about is finally done!!! I have wanted a lamp in my family room for so long. There are only two lights in the ceiling since my house is so old. I really wanted an antique bridge lamp like I have in my bedroom but they have tiny bases and tip very easily. Not exactly kid friendly. So I decided to make one so I could control the size of the base and make it fit my style. And if I save (a ton) of money that would be great too!

**UPDATE**  Here are a couple of pictures in the day light :) A little better.

The first thing I did was lightly pencil a design onto the lamp shade. I am slightly obsessed with paisley so that is what I chose.
****Update**** I need to clarify something that until someone asked me for the pattern I used, I didn't realize that I hadn't explain very well. I didn't use a pattern. I made up the paisley design as I went. I erased if I didn't like it. Paisley is easy because anything goes. There is no wrong way. If it looks like a strange amoeba thing, you are good to go!

I used Deco Art paint to paint on the design. Usually when I paint on fabric I use a fabric paint medium. But since this won't be thrown in the washing machine, I skipped on the medium.

I used a small pointed brush. I can do this pretty quickly. I broke it up into 3 night so I wouldn't get sick of it. I watched a couple TV shows each night and painted. I enjoy it. If you don't want to hand paint your shade you can by all means cover your shade in fabric. A little spray adhesive or modpodge and your set.

Now for the base. I had my husband gather up all my scrap pieces of wood from past projects and put them in the basement. My garage is freezing and I am a wuss. I covered everything in the unfinished  part of our basement and turned it into my winter workshop. I cut all the wood with my miter saw. I didn't even measure. I just grabbed it and cut random sizes. I know, I know. You are totally diggin' my outfit. Sorry ladies. It is completely custom and takes years to make.

As I was cutting I stacked them up to make sure I was cutting enough to get the height I wanted.

When they were all cut, I sanded the heck out of them. I wanted all the edges and corners to be smooth. I have kids whose heads seem to be magnetically drawn to sharp edges.

I used a bore bit (3/4 inch) to make holes in the center of each one. Again, I did not measure. Great huh? That is probably why I like this project so much.I put the piece I was drilling on top of a piece that would not be used for the lamp.

I did not want the cord coming out of a hole in the very bottom piece or else the lamp would wobble. So I did not drill a hole in the very bottom board. I took the second the last board and drilled a hole on the side that went all the way through until it met up with the center hole. You will get a better idea of what I am talking about when you see me put the cord through this hole a little later. All you need to understand now is that I am a genius for thinking that up.

Here are all the pieces to my lamp puzzle!

Then I stained them all a dark walnut. This is right after I stained them. The stain sinks into the wood slowly. It ended up being lighter than this. I like dark stain for many reasons and one of them is that it hides imperfections quite well. Since this was all scrap wood, there were definitely imperfections!

Time to assemble! I used Gorilla wood glue on the bottom of the board and then added it to the base.

I nail gunned it so it would stay in place while the glue dried. Also, I just like any excuse to pull out my favorite tool :)

Then I strung the cord through. 

After that it is pretty much like you are stringing giant beads onto a string. Glue, string it on, nail once or twice and repeat. Now, I need to point out that some of the chunks of wood were too thick to nail. But the glue when dry will be strong enough. I didn't worry about it. I figured that it was better to have most of them held in place than none of them. I literally just grabbed and stuck it on, then grabbed another. No rhyme or reason. I have found that if you want a truly random look that it is best to make it truly random. Because of that and not measuring anything, this was an EASY project.

Sorry this is a little dark. But it is soooo much prettier in real life. I hope I get better pics in the morning.