Materials and the sequence of the job sit together on this page.
Amanda at The Hand Me Down House found a way to make a great Pottery Barn look with a little Mod Podge.
I was a little bummed that it wasn’t colored — but oh well I’ll take what I can get.
Oh, wait — it gets better – I found Pam’s blog, Gingerbread & Snowflakes with a WONDERFUL walkthrough on how to “tint” glass! OMG — could not even tell you how excited I was when I found this — visit her walkthrough — it’s solid!
So the trick was to use Mod Podge and food coloring. Well first, let me say that I have NEVER used Mod Podge before — but I’ve heard memorable things about it and how addicting it is. So I went out and bought some (did you know Joann’s has a 50% off coupon this week?) with my coupon of course — and I L-O-V-E this stuff!
So I happened to find some Neon Food Coloring in my cupboard (no option what I would have used this for — but it came in handy this time!). I put a few drops of the neon blue and mixed it with the Mod Podge like Pam did and painted it on. After I painted it I stippled it with a paper towel — real technical using paper towels and all, I know.
I know it looks quite electric-blue in the picture — but as it dried it mellowed out.
Next step was the lighting portion of it. If you look at the PB light, there isn’t a cord going through the glass — it simply gets pushed out the top. So I used the wires and switch from this light:
The bottom of the lamp just comes right off and the wires can be pulled out, but first you need to detach them from the switch part at the top of the light near where the bulb goes.
Unscrew the top by the actual switch and pull that bottom cover off.
**NOTE — You could just as easily buy a lamp kit at the hardware store instead of reusing an old lamp. It would probably be easier.
I unscrewed the screws that were holding the wires to the switch of the light. Once the wires are unscrewed they can slide through the base of the lamp. Now all you should have are the switch part and a black plug-in cord.
Then put everything back together without the base or the glass part (I’ll be using the base for another project).
What you should end up with is the top part of the lamp where the light bulb goes and the black cord that you plug into an outlet.
This part will sit in the top of the vase.
For the final part of my light I had really wanted a direct round lamp shade — but I couldn’t find one in the size I wanted or in the price range I wanted. So I decided to makeover a lampshade that I had lying around the house.
I LOVED Amy’s walkthrough over at The option Room for a Rosette Lamp Shade. She did an adorable lamp for her daughter that had a TON of the cutest little flowers on it. I didn’t do as many as she did but I did take her option in using one of my hubby’s old t-shirts he was going to throw away.
I cut it up into strips and rolled away!
I only did five and put buttons in the middle of each one.
The buttons were ones I found at Joann’s for $1.50.
I think they turned out pretty good for my first try.
And are you ready for our lamp reveal!?!
I’m in love with how the glass turned out. Pam is an absolute genius!
I’m definitely going to be using the glass-Mod Podge-food coloring on other pieces.
Total for my lamp:
Vase: $1.50
Light: $2.99 (plus I can reuse the base for another project)
Buttons: $1.50
Mod Podge: $3.49 (and I’ll be reusing this – a lot!)
TOTAL: $9.48 (compared to $99.00 for the PB one!)
