Cool Lamp Shade Ideas to Make at Home

Design Regal Shades

• Create some elegant design options. If you have lamps with black shades over gold bases, think of ways to add high-quality touches. For example, adding beads around the bottom rim of the shade is one choice. Gluing fringe or pearls onto the bottom are excellent ideas, too. Metal studs, flowers and old pieces of broken jewelry can provide craft materials as well.

Create Drawings

• Use a painting on the shade. You can, for example, use acrylic paint to draw an outdoor scene on a family room lamp shade. If you're especially gifted, you might draw a deer or bear on a shade for a man's den. Painting cartoon figures or flowers on a lamp shade for a child's room might involve some help from the child. Make the project a weekend activity, along with adding a new bedspread or pictures to the child's room.

Recycle Sea Shells

• Try creating a beach feel with shells. If you have sea shells on hand from a beach trip, use small shells to cover the shade. Paint the shade light pink or light blue, for example, before gluing the shells in place. Add a bright blue tassel around the base of the lamp just below the light bulb area.

Design Using Nature

• Incorporate objects from the woods or a hike. Covering a shade with gnarly twigs, tiny rocks, or dried flowers or berries works well. You can use artificial flowers or berries from the craft store as well. Leaves, old pieces of rope or interesting pieces of wood will make decorative materials for a shade. Plan the design, however, versus just gluing objects on randomly. Sketch the lamp the way you will space everything before applying glue. Let the glue dry to a "tacky" feeling before adding everything.

Create Theme Shades

• Pick a theme. You can, for instance, attach doll toys or baby objects around a lamp shade. If you use larger objects -- such as dice from the 1950s or a baby rattle -- you can hang the objects to simply drape over the shade. They might hang down on just one side. Objects to consider for this type of project are small toy cars, bird feathers, wooden birds or tiny gold-framed mirrors tied to the lamp with ribbons.