Recovering Lamp Shades - Tutorial

Recovering lamp shades is actually very easy. Okay, I know I start a lot of posts like that and there are probably things that I think are easy that you might not, but really, this one is easy!

Armed with some craft glue and pegs (and fabric of course) you can recover your lamp shades in under an hour. I bought these lamps for $7 each at Target. I like the bases, but the shades were pretty boring and most annoyingly, the colour of the shade was different to the base! See the 'before shot' below.




Recovering Lamp Shades

You'll need:
Lamp shades
Your chosen fabric
12mm (1/2") bias binding
Craft glue
Clothes Pegs
Scissors and ruler


If your shades are drum shades, meaning they have straight sides, then they're the easiest to recover. Measure the height of your shade and then around the shade to get the size of fabric you'll need to cut. Use the exact height, but add a little extra to the length (about an inch will be plenty).



If your shades are conical, then you'll need to roll the shade over the fabric and trace around it as you go to get your shape. Cut your fabric to size and then drape it over the shade to make sure it fits.



Now, get gluing! Start where the original shade starts and run a thin line of glue down the seam. Then, dot glue along each edge, on the original binding.



My craft glue dries in a few minutes so I just do small sections at a time. I find it easiest to dot the glue along each side and then roll the shade over the fabric. Keep going until you get back to the start.



Run a line of glue along the fabric, underneath the overlap. Fold over the overlap and squash down onto the glue. I used the side of a pen. If it's not glued down enough, just add a few more dots of glue as needed.



To finish the lamp, add some bias binding. It's easiest to iron one half of the binding open (I didn't do this, but I should have). The open side will fold over the top edge of the lamp, and the folded side will rest on the fabric.

Run a bead of glue around the top of the lamp and stick on the binding. Add pegs to make sure it sits flat. The glue I was using doesn't work on plastic, so my plastic pegs were fine. When you get back to the start, cut the binding 1 inch longer and fold it back on itself and glue. Leave it to dry and you're done!