How to Make a Button Lamp

Collect a variety of buttons to use in creating your button lamp. Search around your house for discarded or unused buttons. Also scour garage sales, antiques shops and thrift stores for unusual and unique buttons.

Remove any backings on the buttons that would prevent them from lying flat against the lamp surface. Use metal cutters to snip through any loops or attachments on the backs of the buttons.

Plug in your hot glue gun, with a glue stick inside, so that it begins to heat the adhesive.

Wipe down the surface of the lampshade with a damp cloth to remove any dust, dirt or debris.

Place a dab of hot glue from the hot glue gun on the back of one button. Place the piece against a surface of the lamp, either its base or the lampshade. Secure the button in place by pressing on its sides. Do not press directly in the center of the button with your finger, as hot glue may ooze from the thread holes and burn you. If the button is small and difficult to handle, use a pair of tweezers to press it into place.

Add additional buttons to your lamp as desired using the hot glue gun adhesive. Cover the entire lamp shade and lamp base with the decorations. Or, create patterns with buttons, such as gluing a button rim around the base of the lamp and writing a name on the shade of the fixture.