DIY Colorful Painted Lampshade
INSIDE : Bring new life into old lampshades with a vibrant DIY colorful painted lampshade project. This easy and budget-friendly home decor craft allows you to personalize your lighting and add a splash of color to any room.
Whether you’re a seasoned crafter or a beginner, this step-by-step guide will show you how to transform a plain lampshade into a stunning focal point, perfect for adding a unique touch to your home.
This post contains affiliate links. See my full disclosure.
Today is the second of our “Inspired By” Challenge and we are being inspired by one of the coolest stores, Land of Nod (now Crate & Kids). I have been a huge fan of them for a while and today am very excited to share my DIY Colorful Painted Lamp Shade inspired by one of their home decor items!
And if you are looking to buy colorful lampshades, you might like these:
Crate & Kids has stunning lamps, artwork and amazing storage. I would furnish my entire house there if I could afford it! They definitely don’t give “kids vibe”.
I pinned this colorful lamp shade so long ago and when our inspirational challenge came up, I was thrilled to already know what I was going to make!
Check out my other amazing Inspired By series projects here!
It was very fun to be inspired by the colors and patterns of the original lampshade, but to only spend $7 on my project versus the $49 it was selling for.
Let’s get into the supplies needed for this cool home decor project.
What supplies do I need to paint a lampshade?
I already owned the white lamp base from Target. Then, I went to my local Goodwill and bought the white lamp shade for $7.
However, if you were to buy these two items new it would still cost quite a bit less than the originals $49 price.
How to paint a colorful Lampshade
Don’t be nervous to paint a lampshade. I’m thrilled to share that this abstract painted shade could not be an easier project. Simply break up the design color by color and shape by shape.
Sometimes it can be hard to paint in an abstract way, but have fun creating this whimsical pattern.
To paint a colorful lamp shade, start first by adding a soft sherbet green acrylic paint color. I made a nice sized blob near the bottom, a stripe at the top and a medium sized blog in the middle.
Next, I added in some peachy orange paint to soften the colors a bit. Again, just go with the flow and add three sections of peachy paint.
Next, I added in a more bold color, a fun sky blue paint. I added a few shapes of blue and then added some movement by making dash marks in the center.
Adding just a few bold contrasting colors adds more dimension. I used a bright blue paint, some pink.
After all the paint has dried, I added black acrylic paint to really set off the colors. Black is always a grounding neutral even when your colors are bright and bold.
Once the acrylic paint had dried, the lampshade was ready to install and put back on the lamp. It has been four years since I originally painted this lampshade and it looks exactly the same today as it did back then. It has held up remarkably well without any issue!
After it was all done, I could not decide for the life of me which lamp to put this on because it’s just so fun… so here are my two options! Green base or white base??!
Looking for other fun creative paint projects? Check out some of these…
- DIY Painted Nature
- Create Abstract Flower Paintings
- Easy Art in 1.2.3 : Abstract Diamonds
- Colorful Embroidered DIY Canvas
Through August, we will be showcasing an inspired project from a pre-decided home decor store. Be sure to check out the other amazing projects and the projects from last month!
Painted Lampshade / Monogram Wall Art / DIY Modern Floor Lamp
Upcycled Owl Nightlight / Nautical Flag Banner / Monogram Initial Pillow
Hi, I’m totally new to DIY and this will be my first project. I do have one question, does the shade have to be white? Thanks for sharing this.
Hello Frances, thanks for your question! No, the lampshade can be any color really. I would guess you would just need to use paint colors that would show up, but otherwise the sky is the limit! Good luck!
It’s my first time reading your blog, after following a series of links that somehow landed me here. You’re DIY is alright, sure, the end result looks good – but it’s kind of insane that you didn’t acknowledge that this is another artists work (licensed by Land of Nod) that you just ripped off. Surprised that no one else has mentioned.
Thank you for stopping by, Victoria. Good eye! This lamp is actually inspired by Land of Nod as written in and linked to, in the original post. It’s part of a monthly series I participated in from last year. Thanks for chiming in!
so adorable! You’re so talented! Thanks for linking up to Outside the Box! You’re featured this week!
You’re too kind Carissa! I had to laugh out loud when I read your post description of my project. Ha…
Oh no! What did I say?
Oh, whoops! Just doubled checked it wasn’t you – no worries! Someone else wrote something about “just when I realized it was cool to remove the shade and leave the lamp wire exposed, I’m now wanting to keep the shade and paint it!” No need to worry, ha. Sorry. =)
This looks very 80s. It’s adorable. Thanks for posting. Hello from Totally Terrific Tuesday.
Oh my goodness, I didn’t even realize but you are right — very 80’s! =)
Oh, I love it! Colors are right up my street. And I love dinosaur too 🙂
I love that you made this (and I love the animated gif, too!). I really like the white base, personally. Great job, Amy!
You did a great job–I love this mix of colors and patterns. I vote for the green base!
This is just amazing !
I’d go with white – but I really do like the green too – I’d probably just change it every other day LOL
Beautiful job!
Beauuutiful. Love the bolder colors you used!
Thanks so much, Amy! I had fun with being a bit more abstract.
LOVE IT!! Seriously, you rocked this one. My vote is for the green base, but I like both of them! Pinning!
Thanks girl! I am having such a hard time deciding myself! =)
Yours looks better than the original Amy, I think it is your colour choices! I love it with the green lamp base also. Forgot to say congrats on your recent blog anniversary, so congrats! xo
Thanks Gilly! I kept wanting to just go with the white base, but I loved the green so much that I couldn’t decide!
I love this!! I’m also loving the other linked posts. 🙂
Thank you, Heather! It’s such a fun series to participate in.
I like the green one,colourful and all those curves!
Your version is just stunning! I love the way it turned out! I’ll cast my vote, too – white lamp all the way!
Thanks girl! I just kept going back and forth on the lamp base… I ended up with white because it’s higher up on a shelf and my daughter just wants to keep touching the new colorful lampshade – ha.
I fell in love with this lamp shade as soon as I saw it on their site, which may be because I sorta have an obsession with lamp shades, haha. I really didn’t need another shade but am soooooo happy that you did this project because I LOVE how it turned out! I’m going to keep this idea in my back pocket because you just never know when you may need another lamp shade….
I like yours much better than the original too. But I thought almost everyone would say white for the base!! And that is definitely my vote. The green is cute, but the white has weight and a sophisticated style—more upscale maybe. The green seems outdated to me.