How to Paint a Herringbone Lampshade (sort of)

I recently retired an outdated set of lampshades in my living room that were a silvery faux leather.  They were as gross as they sound.  I bought these very plain drum shades that you see before you with the hopes of dressing them up and bringing my old lamps back to life.  Then I proceeded to do nothing about them for months on end, and just slowly became blind to the blahness.

Luckily, ScotchBlue recently asked me to participate in their ScotchBlue Ribbons campaign to Reward Creativity, so I figured my lampshades were finally due for some attention. 

What I came up with was a very loose interpretation of my Ikea HESSUM rug's herringbone design.  I actually matched these colors pretty well, and then hated them completely and went over it again with a silvery gray craft paint.  I guess I just can't let go of the silver.  And ... the lamp itself is silver, so ... I probably should have just stuck with that in the beginning.  I'm smart.

Here is the inspiration:

And here's the finished product:

Would you like a tutorial?  So would I!  I pretty much just guessed my way through it.  I recommend measuring a lot more than I did. Or, take your ScotchBlue tape and mark out your design on a flat surface first, before going all gung-ho on a roly-poly lampshade.  But it was fun to do, and the design is actually a lot more forgiving than it would seem.

You can play along too! I would love to see what you and your creative brain could come up with.   Here are a couple of ways you can participate in the ScotchBlue Ribbons Program:

• Enter your email address here for a chance to win one of hundreds of daily giveaways from ScotchBlue (over 300 per day!)

• Install a ScotchBlue Ribbon bookmark button on your browser where you can nominate projects from around the web in just a few clicks.  Consumers who nominate projects will be entered into a pool to win a great sample pack and $150.  Here's the cool part: it's not random!  Winners are chosen based on the creativity of the projects that they select to submit, so it really rewards those of you who have an eye for unique projects, even if you may have not previously used ScotchBlue tape.

See what YOU can do. With ScotchBlue!

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue Painter's Tape, who is dedicated to recognizing and rewarding creativity.  Get started to win some cool prizes.

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