How to Recover a Lampshade

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I have an obsession with black lampshades:

{Desire to Inspire}

{Elle Decor}

{Decorpad}

I think they add a little drama to a room, and who doesn’t want that?

I had a basic Ikea floor lamp in my living room just begging for some drama so I decided to recover it. Below are step by step instructions.

First, you’ll want to make a pattern for the fabric you’ll use to cover your lampshade.  It doesn’t have to be exact, but it needs to be close so you will make sure you have enough fabric, but not so much that it’s hard to work with.  I used butcher paper.

Next, trace it onto your fabric (which you’ve ironed first) with chalk, and then cut it out.

After cutting it out, you’ll want to start gluing it to the shade.  I used a clip (you can use a clothes pin) to hold one end to the shade while I started at the other.  Start with the seam at the back of your shade, and then work your way around gluing both the top and the bottom as you go.  Depending on your shade and the fabric you use, you may be able to use fabric glue, but I found that hot glue worked better for me. ( Just make sure that you don’t get too thick of a bead of glue.)

Don’t worry that the fabric edges aren’t perfect.  Trim the fabric as close to the edges of the shade as you can, and trim the overlap on the back seam so that it is straight.

Now you are ready for the trim.  I used black friction tape which can be found alongside electrical tape at most home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s.  I chose the friction tape because it is self-adhesive fabric tape.

I placed one strip along the seam, and then started around the top,  folding half the tape over the top edge.  Go slowly so that you don’t wrinkle up the tape too much, but you can fix the tape if you make any mistakes – it doesn’t permanently adhere, so you can peel it back and re-stick if you need to.

Repeat the same process along the bottom of the shade, and finish with another strip along the seam – next to your first strip, slightly overlapping it.  This last strip should cover the ends of the tape at the top and bottom of the shade.

All finished!  Now you can stand back and admire your new custom recovered lampshade!

*Note: If you can, remove the shade from the lamp during this process.  My shade was permanently attached to the lamp so I was couldn’t, but it should come as no surprise that  it would be much easier to recover if you can.