Lampshades

(Yup. I’m about to post about lampshades. And it might be boring. But somehow it was a big deal to me. I overanalyze everything.)

My lamps finally have shades!

(Don’t mind the missing shelves from the bookcase. They’re off being painted.)

First, let’s talk about how amazing lamps are!  I finally really get why people use them. When I was a kid, our living room had no overhead lighting, only lamps, and it was kind of a pain…especially if you were afraid of the dark. No one, single switch to turn on and banish the boogie man.  So when Brandon and I started doing things to houses, we always made sure there was plenty of overhead light.

But them my designer friend, Valerie, was trying to convince me to use lamps…and I really did notice that all my favorite inspiration rooms had them. And let me tell you, when they’re really plugged in and running, the light quality is amazing. Whether it’s because it’s at eye-level, or diffused well, or just because now there’s more light, it really makes the living room feel warm and wonderful.

Okay, enough about why lamps are amazing.

Remember these lamps I found at Goodwill?

They’ve definitely just been sitting in our living room shade-less all these months. I still want to paint/decorate/do something to the wood part in the middle, but am holding off until I figure out what I really want them to look like.

But in the meantime, they needed shades.

I wanted white-ish drum shades for not too much money. I checked HomeGoods whenever I could (we don’t have one super nearby), Lowes, Target, and finally, Tuesday Morning.

And here’s what my living room looked like.

Yeah, I had 7 sets of shades, all very similar.

My lamps have harps with a cool ball detail on the top, so I wanted to use those if I could. Target only had the kind of lamp shades that attach at the bulb base.  (Just FYI, I found plain white ones there for $14.99, gray herringbone ones for $24.99, and a linen-colored version by Nate Berkus for $24.99). Lowes had some nice ones for the harp top that were pretty much exactly our wall color for $14.99.  I liked them, but kept looking just in case.

Then I went to the jackpot Tuesday Morning. They had a couple of huge ones (15” x 17” x 10”, where all the others I had looked at were more like 13” x 15” x10”) and they’re prices were great. $19.99 for the huge white and gray ones, $12.99 for the smaller white ones.

Okay, and how awesome are the bright blue lined shades!

I really am glad I got so many, because the ones I thought I’d love, just didn’t cut it when they were really in the room and on the lamps. The blue-lined shades were a little too cool blue for me when the lamps were on, and even though I thought I might like the gray shades instead of white, to tie in with our various pieces of furniture, I didn’t.

So some white ones from Tuesday Morning won out! They’re 12”x15”x10” (so not quite as drum shaped as I hoped, but I still love them), they have a cool green/gray lining, and they were just $12.99 each.

And I love them with the lamps on and off.

(Notice my fabric swatches on the wall? :) Oooh, I’m getting ready to finally make some curtains! Woohoo!)

So even though the shades cost more than the lamps (which were $10 each), $22.99 each for lamps with shades is still a pretty good price. (We’ll see whether or not I count the cost of paint when it comes to revamp the bases, because a lot of that the supplies and paint are already in my “inventory” and I often paint perfectly good things that don’t need it at all.) :)

Have you bought anything that’s relatively small and/or boring but has made a huge impact on your room/life?