Quatrefoil Lamp Shade

I only have one lamp in our main room and it was a snooze fest. It's got a pretty big shade that was all white. Really boring. It took me quit a few months to decide exactly what I wanted to do with it, but this weekend I narrowed it down and did it. I used the quatrefoil design. I found a great free template from here. I cut two of them out adhered them with double stick tape and they laid side be side perfectly on my shade. Here is the finished product.

So this is what the template looks like. I used an exacto knife and cut all the black parts out. This took me a while. I first just cut the template out with the size and all, then I measured. I do things backwards because I'm smart like that! I then copied it again and enlarged it by 116%. Cut it out, and decided I needed another one. After that I was a pro with that knife and felt like scissors could be obsolete!. Measure before then cut, like normal people!!

Here's a close up of my shade. I am pretty pleased how it turned out. There are a few little imperfections. My shade's fabric is pretty fuzzy so I didn't get the cleanest lines. Also there is one side that will NEVER see the light of day. It turned out so badly, good thing it's up against the wall.

This was my method of painting. I taped off a border. I had a little lip on the shade that I wanted to keep, so I taped it down. Then I taped around the other two edges so the paint wouldn't bleed onto it.

I covered the sides and inside with painting paper.

Then went to work. TIP: the farther you hold the spray can the BETTER! Seriously don't get too close, that's precisely why one side will never be shown.

I am so happy with how it turned out, even with the ugly crappy side, and the little imperfections of the fuzzy shade. It has taken this lamp from boring to fun!