DIY: Lamp Revamp ~Modge Podge to the Rescue!

***Note: the title should read “Mod Podge to the Rescue”. Way to spell a major brand name incorrectly Jenn!***

There is a small bedside lamp that Princess keeps on the table by her bed. A few weeks ago someone tripped on the cord, pulled it off the table and the ceramic base cracked into 3 large pieces.

Ooops!

Right around the same time Walmart gave me some options for the June DIY challenge-and one of them was “Thrifty Reinventions”. Well now, I’ve got a lamp that needs to be reinvented, and I’m all about being thrifty!

The first thing to do was to get the lamp glued back together. I used my favorite glue–good old E6000. Glues anything to anything else, I swear! So I glued it together. Viola!

All in one piece and functional–but not exactly beautiful. So what to do? Of course I could paint it, but the cracks would still show. So I decided to decoupage it! That would cover up the cracks AND look cute. So I headed out to Walmart assembled my very inexpensive materials, a bottle of Mod Podge and package of cute polka dot napkins.

I added a brush from my craft closet, taped a piece of brown craft paper to the table, poured some Mod Podge on a paper plate and we were ready to go.

Since this was for Princess’s room I decided to let my crafty daughter do the work. She started by painting a good layer of Mod Podge straight onto the lamp. Next she added torn sections of the tissues.

As the pieces were added she painted more Mod Podge on top off them.

When the entire base was done it was hard to tell what it was going to look like–the nice thick layer of Mod Podge sort of obscured the colors and pattern. . . but that was ok, I knew it would dry clear and shiny.

Both Princess and I LOVE how it turned out! We are going to put two more layers of Mod Podge on to give it a really good “tween” proof coating.

You don’t need a broken lamp to get this adorable effect–you can decoupage a yard sale find or inexpensive new lamp and wind up with something gorgeous and individual. And if you don’t have Mod Podge, don’t despair! You can always try making a homemade version-although I can’t vouch for the quality of that.