How to Add Beads to a Light Fixture

Choose a color scheme for your lamp that matches with the rest of the décor in the room. Select both a base ribbon color as well as a few complementary bead colors. Make sure to vary your choices a little; a fringe with just one color lacks imagination, but a random assortment will not tie together the décor in your room.

Purchase the necessary materials. Find beads and ribbon at your local craft store or online. If you shop locally, take color swatches or other pieces of your room décor so that you can see how the beads and ribbon that you select fit with your room's color scheme.

Measure around the base of the lampshade and cut your ribbon to this length. Use a soft measuring tape, as the retractable metal kind may kink as you bend it around the lampshade and give you an inaccurate measurement.

Lay your ribbon out on a flat work surface next to a measuring tape and fasten both to your work area, using tape or pins. Make sure that the ribbon and the measuring tape do not move relative to each other.

Insert pins into your ribbon at the exact intervals that you want your fringe to hang, using the measuring tape to guide you. Make sure that your pin placement is exact, or your fringe can come out uneven and some strands will be too close together, while others will be too far apart. Once you have placed your pins, remove the tape

Thread a needle with a piece of beading thread and tie a knot at the end of the thread. Pass the needle through the ribbon just under the first pin.

Thread your beads onto the string according to the pattern that you designed.

Pass the needle through the ribbon again, under the second pin -- this should leave you with an arc of beads handing from your ribbon, with the needle coming out behind the ribbon.

Repeat your beading pattern and pass the needle through the ribbon under the third pin. You should now have two arcs of hanging beads. Repeat these steps until you have created these bead arcs under the entire length of ribbon.

Glue your ribbon carefully around the base of your lampshade, making sure that the beaded fringe hangs downward. Allow the glue to dry for 24 hours before you move the lamp.