Restoration Phase One

    Recently I found out that my husband and I are going to be moving to a house, yay!!! Ever since I found this out I have been going crazy with planning on how I want to decorate our home. Of course, I have been using; our dear friend Pinterest: along with fellow blog sites. After doing much research i came across the idea of restoring house hold things. For example lamps, dressers, picture frames, curtains, the list goes on! I fell in the love with this idea and after telling my hubby all about restoring things he too fell in the with the idea because it was going to be much cheaper for him. : ) I decided to tackle my first project! I started with restoring a 2.50 Goodwill lamp. Here goes...

This lamp was 1.48$ at Goodwill. I really like the shape of it, but the color just isn't matching my décor I am getting ready for my new house. This is a picture after it has been cleaned. You want to make sure to clean it very well because if you leave any dirt on it, it will make bubbles when you go to paint it. Trust me you don't want that!

Since this lamp is ceramic I used 220 Waterproof Sandpaper. I got this sandpaper from my grandpa, but you can buy sandpaper at your local hardware store.

What you do to use this sandpaper is two easy steps.

1. Dip it in the water.

2. Scrub away!

Then I wrapped a bag around the top and the cord and just taped it around so I wouldn't get any paint on it. These pictures are from my first layer of primer. I used Krylon grey primer. I love Krylon because it dries in 10 minutes or less. I am not the most patient person in the world so this is fabulous for me. Plus, having a four month old baby makes my time for projects limited.

(When I was doing this project thankfully my grandma was holding baby Amelia loving every second of course. I did have to go in and feed my baby girl a couple times. No problem though.)

This is after the second coat of primer. The primer was free because my grandpa already had some that he let me use, but at our local hardware store it is 4.99.

Before I show you pictures of the white paint, I want to warn you that it is extremely important that you do not spray to much in one area or else you will get runs and those are nasty things. I sprayed about a foot and a half away from the lamp and that seemed to be the perfect distance.

I used this Semi-Gloss Protective Enamel White and am really happy with the semi-gloss look.  I wasn't sure I would like it at first, I thought I may want it more shiny. I am really happy with the Semi-Gloss finish though, I think it has just enough shine.

This spray paint was also free because my grandpa had it, but at our local hardware store it is also 4.99. This might seem expensive for making a lamp, but you probably will not use all of the spray paint (or primer) so you can already have it for your next project.

This was taken after the first coat of white. It is starting to look good!

I took this picture to show you how a bug landed on it, but you can't really see anything. I guess that is a good thing.

                                               



These are the finished product...so I thought. I did this project at my grandparents and we had to leave the same day and the lamp wasn't completely dry and in the car got a few nicks on it. I was so sad! When I got home I just painted another layer on it and you can barely see the scratch's. When I repainted it, I did get a little to close while spray painting and I got some of those nasty runs, but I just dabbed them with a paper towel and sprayed another coat. I will take pictures of the scratch's and the spot from the run later and post them, but it looks just like this even after all of those disasters.

I am still in the search for a lamp shade that I love. It is hard looking for the perfect one right now because I am still getting my color scheme all worked out for my new living room. I will update this post when I find one!

Expenses:

Lamp: 1.48$

Primer: Free for me, but at local hardware store 4.99

Spray Paint: Free for me, but at local hardware store 4.99

Plastic Bag: Free

Tape: Free for me, but at local hardware store 3.99

*I did not talk about the tape previously, but I recommend paint tape

Sand Paper: Free for me, I am really not sure how much it is for just a little piece, but I am sure it is not to much.

Total: Around 16$

                                         Before                                                                          After             

    

For my first restoration project I am extremely happy with the outcome. It is making me itch to do another project! I think the next project I have is a wicker mirror I will be painting.

Are you readers into restoring things right now? I just can't get over how cheap it is, and how good it looks!