“Life is all about a good edit.”

by chuckofish

As the Madcaps say, “Create bright and happy moments inside your home that are antidotes to the world outside.” (They’re the source of my post title, too). This weekend, I really channeled my inner Jason and John and gussied up a plain, old lampshade and turned it into a pattern-filled delight for my living room.

At some point, on the internet or instagram, I saw a tutorial where someone made a bunch of bias binding strips and glued them to a lampshade to look like it was pleated fabric. Inspired by that tutorial and the below photo, I decided to attempt replicating the look. Please note, I have that Ralph Lauren blue and white lamp–it was a great find I made at the Home Goods at 100th and Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side (back in the day, I like to call it the suburbs because there was a Whole Foods, a TJ Maxx, and a Home Goods on that block).

Anyway, I ordered some block print fabric on Etsy and got to work cutting strips. The tutorial called for bias strips, but the fabric was light-weight enough that there was enough stretch without cutting on the bias (which is kind of a pain). I then used a bias tape maker to iron the fabric into bias strips. There is something incredibly soothing about sewing a mile and a half long strip of bias tape (that might be an exaggeration, but it was long).

Next, I began gluing the strips to the lampshade, placing them so that it looked as if made from one piece of pleated fabric.

Doing my best Chamberlin concentration face.

It was a time-intensive process, but thankfully there was an Aurora Teagarden Mysteries marathon on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries to keep me entertained.

Once I finished gluing the strips around the outside, I trimmed the excess off at the top and bottom and began gluing a strip across the top and bottom on both sides of the shade. I used the wonder clips to hold it in place while it dried.

And here’s the finished product!

And, yes, that is a 2014 issue of T Magazine with Chan on the cover that I stole from Nightline. [insert the shrug emoji]

I have to say, I am not skilled with the hot glue gun (and have the scald marks on my fingers to prove it) but I am so pleased with how this turned out. I think it looks much more expensive than it was. And I don’t think it looks super homemade.

What do you think?