Remember way back to when I brought home this lamp from my parents’ basement?

And then, remember when I painted it blue earlier this spring, as part of my pre-summer spray-painting frenzy?

Well, then we bought a new lampshade from Target, but decided we didn’t like it, so we returned it.

And, then I forgot about the lampshade hunt for awhile.

And then, I saw this pin on Pinterest:

And my mind began to form a rough idea.

• I already had a lampshade that was the perfect size (the original one from the lamp). We just didn’t like the color and texture of it.
• I’d been wanting to do something creative and fun with this lamp.
• Using wood as an accent would be interesting and might intrigue Wyatt.

Basically, it seemed like I had nothing to lose. I had been planning on just buying a new shade and throwing the old one away so I might as well have some fun with it first.

So, I had Wyatt pick up two packages of wood shims at Home Depot on his way home from work, and I plugged in my hot glue gun.

At this point, I was a little concerned this was a crazy idea, but I charged on.

To get started, I glued a row of shims, thick side up, to the top of the shade, centering the shim so there was some overhang on both the top and bottom. I left a little space in between each one as well since I knew I’d be using two layers.

Then, I overlapped those with a second row on top.

Wyatt was concerned the hot glue wouldn’t hold, but a little bit at the top and bottom seemed to hold nicely.

Pretty soon, I had a really easy and super unique lampshade upgrade.

Because the shims aren’t perfectly shaped, I had to be careful to not place two “smaller” shims together. Otherwise, they would create a gap and let the shade show through between the cracks. I also had to be careful to not get “off” since the shims weren’t all the same size and shape, but I was trying to keep a consistent round shape for my lampshade.

I didn’t do this perfectly, though, and from one side, it appears a little lopsided.

I was a little worried the wood shims with darken the shade so much that the lamp would no longer br bright enough to really add light to a room, but that didn’t up being an issue.

One issue I didn’t think through, though, was how heavy they would be. I had to be careful when I placed it on the lamp.

Because the lampshade I used was really large, it took a lot of shims to go all the way around it. When you add in the second layer, the lamp suddenly became a little top heavy.

It’s fine, but if you bump into it or try and move it, it’s a little wobbly.

(This is also because the lamp is pretty old and was already a little wiggly.)

Still, I think it was a really fun little upgrade. It was also really cheap because a pack of shims is only about $10. (We used about one and a half packs.)

Compare that to the price of a new lampshade in that size (which we couldn’t even find at our local stores) and we saved at least 50% of this solution.

Also, we could have stained these shims to darken them or give it a richer, more finished tone. I thought the raw wood look worked for us for now though. And, we can always change the shade in the future if we find one we like.

Ever done something out for the box with a salvaged furniture or accent piece? This was the first really out-of-the-box thing I’ve done. (Unless you count painting my desk bright yellow…or any of the other crazy stuff I’ve painted. )