Better After

14 In decor/ lighting

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I recently retired an outdated set of lampshades in my living room that were a silvery faux leather.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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September 12, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

8 In office

A Funner Stunner

This is one of the funnest makeovers I’ve seen in a long time! Oh man, when I typed the word ‘funnest’ just now, I was totally reminded of that HORRIBLE Chuck E. Cheese commercial that’s been playing lately: “It’s funner at Chuck E. Cheese’s!” Funner. FUNNER. I know. It’s not bad enough that Chuck E. Cheese is a vector of contagion in the physical sense, now it’s corrupting young MINDS! Funner. Sheesh.

Anyway, sorry about that grammar rant. Let’s get cheerful instead with this gorgeous office/playroom makeover from Kara at Kara Paslay Designs. It’s so happy! I think you could be paying your taxes in here and still be having fun. But not funner.

September 11, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

9 In other rooms

S’mores Stairs

If your narrow, dark, closed-in staircase is so depressing you’ve just started pretending you don’t have a second floor, take heart. There’s hope yet. Look at how great Maggie’s staircase looks after knocking open the wall and adding a banister. Like, super great. And her painted stairs (which are awaiting carpet) not only top off the look, but are making me crave s’mores. Yums.

See more on her blog Crunchy Diva.

September 11, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

12 In chairs/ottomans/seating

From Confounded to Conquered

McKelle recently went head-to-head in a heated battle against this beast of a wingback. It fought her hard with it’s corded edges and deep tufts, and she went to bed frustrated and ready to accept defeat. But! She awoke refreshed and pulled through in the final hour with a clutch decision to replace the cording altogether in favor of nail-head trim. The tufts remained, recovered in a fresh neutral and accented with colorful bird fabric. McKelle 1 – Chair 0.

More to see on her blog In De-Stress Mode.

September 10, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

15 In bathroom

Open and Closet

Hello there! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was good, I’m actually pretty proud of myself because I got quite a few projects done. I was like a makeover machine! OK, so I painted two things and hung some curtains, but it felt like a lot. Especially since they all had been on my ‘to do’ list for like, ever.

But Michelle at 4 Men 1 Lady truly IS a makeover machine and would never let projects languish on her to-do list for 6 months. Or more. She recently moved to a fixer-upper, which she’s quickly turning into an all-fixed-upper-and-making-me-jealous-er. Check out her progress in her stunning new master bathroom.

I love the contrast of the wood tile with white grout. Never would have thunk of that. Michelle’s closet got a bit of a makeover too, if you consider being quadrupled in size a ‘bit.’ I have a friend who put her closets in her master bathroom too, also without doors. And when I asked her why, she said “Because you have to open them.” Which makes arguable sense to me.

Much more to see of this room HERE.

September 10, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

10 In tables/dressers

Tons o’ Tables!

Today I am headed across town to visit my boyfriend. I haven’t seen him in awhile. He’s big and blue and smells like meatballs. His name is Ikea. I’m so excited!

So here is a ol’ big bunch of table makeovers to keep your before-and-after appetite satiated in the meantime. Or maybe I’ll bump into you there! Say hello! Don’t worry, Ikea can be your boyfriend too. There’s enough of him to go around.

First up is this neat copper-toned table from Meg at A Little Knick Knack. Looks so cool, but probably quite simple to recreate yourself with painters tape. And the copper stripes remind me of Arizona! Copper IS one of our 5 Cs, did you know that? Copper, Cotton, Cattle, Citrus, and Climate. Now you are smarter. Whoops, I just reread Meg’s blog. She actually used gold.

Kathleen at Between Blue and Yellow somehow resurrected this table top, and look at the loveliness that was hiding under there. She gave the base a weathered look that reminds me of oxidized copper, because apparently I can’t stop thinking about copper today. I blame my recent bout of insomnia. (It’s the worst! I’m open to any suggestions).

And the rest …

This cute little table comes from Better After reader Cathy who had been bitten by the makeover bug. She didn’t have a lot of space to work with in her small apartment, but had to scratch that itch! Luckily she found this perfectly-sized $10 table, and ditched the ivy stencils for bright red and a lot of pizzazzle. I thought that was a word I just made up, then I googled it, and there are like, 45 blogs named Pizzazzle.

And speaking of stencils, but in the opposite-of-lame category, here is a lovely stenciled coffee table from Laurie at House to Your Home. I love that it’s noticeable without punching you in the face with stencileyness. You know? It just looks natural.

A co-worker helped Katie drag this table in from the curb, and it stayed in her office until she figured out what to do with it. Finally she decided to accent it with the same color on her bulletin board, Mermaid Treasure, which has my vote as the best paint color name ever. The stripe around the edge of the table reminds me of when Martha Stewart did a bright color along the inner edges of her doors, did you see that? She said it was like lipstick for your house. Ha! I love it.

See it on Katie’s blog Sensing Self.

Susie sassed up this $5 table that she found on Kijiji with a little black and white damask action. Actually, that is not quite the truth, because she paid $5 and got THREE tables. What!? So this table was … hang on … $1.66. (Yes, I did pull out my calculator to do that). Smokin’ deal. Head on over to Susie’s Sassy DIY’s to see what she did with the other two.

At first when I saw this table makeover from Kirsten at Made For A King, I was like, “Oh no you di’int! How could you paint over all those intricate carvings?” Then I realized the “carvings” were actually stickers, and was like, “Never mind. Carry on with yo bad-self. Stencil that mug up, yeaaah!” (I don’t usually talk like that. It’s probably because I watched the VMA’s last night. Holy smokes, I am too old for that show. I felt like I was having a stroke the whole time.)

And finally, if this awesome table makeover form Marci at The Vintage Lemon doesn’t make your heart go pitter-pat, then I don’t know what’s wrong with you. See a doctor or something. She de-Batman-ified with a soft white and a touch of distressing, which really brings out it’s girliness, I think. Simply gorgeous.

Whew, that’s it! I hope you have a great weekend! Why don’t you go hit the yard-sales, find some projects, paint them up pretty and send them to me? I would love to see what you are up to.

As for me, it’s meatball time.

September 7, 2012 By Lindsey @ Better After

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