Finally!!! A lamp refurb!!

I mentioned quite a few weeks back that I had been scouting projects around the house and decided that the floor lamp Chris broke (read more about that here) would be a great one to tackle.  And then last weekend I wrote the sad story of how we were progressing and meeting with some roadblocks (read here).  I'm pleased to say that I FINALLY have some success to report.

But before I delve into the lamp update, I'd like to give a little history on the lamp itself.  Long ago in the 1990s the floor lamp was purchased from Ikea to light up the back of the "Family Room" in my parents house.  I guess it was my house back then.  By the time Jason and I bought our house my parents had changed their place so much that they no longer needed this Ikea classic and it moved in with us.  It was awesome because we love free stuff.  Who doesn't?

Here it is:

A perfectly serviceable lamp, but not quite the look I was going for.  Most of our stuff is exceedingly neutral and I was starting to eye lamps with more presence (style/color) and I really wasn't feeling the super angled shade that came with it.  I've got a thing for drum shades lately.  So being the cheapskate that I am, I decided that rather than buying something new, I'd at least owe it to myself to try to update the one I had.

I hit up Ikea (more on that here) for a new lampshade.

I stopped in at Walmart for some sweet purply spray paint.  And since I didn't want a shiny finish and the color I picked was apparently only available in a gloss finish, I also snagged a clear satin top coat.  And on one sunny, warm, not too windy day I went to town.  First I prepped the lamp by bagging the cord & wrapping the socket.  Then I painted on a nice light coat of primer:

I let it dry and did one final coat of primer.  Then let that dry and started in on the purple.  The color took a while to complete.  I had a few spots that didn't look so great so they were sanded down and reprimed/painted.  In the end the purple color came out great.  To my surprise, I was really digging the shiny finish so I skipped out on the satin clear coat.

Now the annoying part....the lamp socket was busted.  Chris had knocked the lamp over 2-3 times and the shade broke and the plastic pieces holding it got cracked as well.  So out they went, but with Ikea lamps, you can't always just go to the hardware store for replacement parts.  We figured the best plan would be to harvest parts from other Ikea lamps we had around the house.  Turns out my bedside table lamp had exactly what we needed for the lamp -- a switch up at the top (not on the cord) and t

he ring to hold a shade.  So Jason disassembled my bedside table light (which I was considering replacing anyway) and put together the socket on the floor lamp.  TADA!!!

I'm pretty pleased with the project as a whole.  It would have been done long ago if not for the socket snafu and a few too-windy-to-spray-paint days.

And here's how the living room looks with the lamp in the corner.  Notice how most of the toys are stashed away - so this is how it looks after 9pm and before kids come downstairs in the morning. 

9/4/12 UPDATE:  Guess What!  My project was featured over at Power of Paint - pop over and check out what other cool projects there are :)