Spray paint to the rescue again! Here’s how to spray paint a lamp if you like the shape of a lamp you have, but not the color.
I bought these lamps a couple of years ago and have enjoyed them just fine with their fun modern shape and grey color. I’d been starting to contemplate new lamps for this spot over the last little while though. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, but I thought something a bit brighter would work well against the dark Airstone wall. Maybe something crisp and white? In a nice round shape? Oh wait, the lamps I already had were cute and round, I really just needed to change the color. We got brave (and not too wise) one day during a sleet storm and thought we could definitely spray paint them out in the garage. We would just need to prep them inside and then run them out and keep them protected with an umbrella while we walked across the driveway. Well, it probably would have been easier if we had waited until another day, but it still worked out just fine! Here’s how to spray paint a lamp!
Preparing to Spray Paint a Lamp
The first thing you need to do before you embark on any spray painting project is to of course make sure that you throughly clean the surface of the lamp and dry it completely. First I removed the lamp shade and set them aside, then I just used an e-cloth all purpose cloth, making one corner wet, and keeping the rest of the cloth for drying purposes. Those things are the best.
(Please excuse the super casual photos in this post. I was just sharing this process in stories, then I realized afterwards, that it would probably be useful information to share over on the blog as well. 🙂 )
The next thing you need to do is cover any parts of your lamp that you don’t want to get paint on. I just covered the top part of the lamp with plastic wrap and secured it with some painter’s tape to mask off the metal parts of the lamp.
Then, I wrapped the first six inches or so of the cord with painter’s tape to protect it too. It’s not a big deal to get paint on the cord, but it can look kind of sloppy if the cord is at all visible when you have your lamp set up, so it’s a good idea to cover it.
Spray Painting the Lamps
The actually painting process for the lamp is much the same as spray painting anything else. Apply 2-3 very thin coats, allowing the paint to dry for about 10-20 minutes between coats.
Now.
This is where we ran into our first little issue. Since the temperature was so cool, we actually had to bring the lamps inside to fully dry because the paint will remain wet for a long time in cold weather. So we had to take the still wet lamps and somehow get them inside without smearing the paint, while also protecting them from the sleet with an umbrella. And guess what? We did it!
We weren’t so lucky when it came time to bring the little finials that sit on top of the lamp shade in. Just as we were reaching the house and I was opening the door for Chris, a gust of wind came up and blew the finials right off the little piece of wood we were balancing them on. The paint was ruined, of course.
I took this as an opportunity to do something a little more interesting though, so I took some gold craft paint and applied several layers, building each layer up so the overall affect gave the finials kind of handmade look. I think it works!
The gold paint that I used was DecoArt Dazzling Metallics in Champagne Gold. The spray paint we used for the main part of the lamps was Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover in Gloss White.
I love my new lamps! They’re a fun little update for this side of the room and they cost me exactly nothing because I already had all the paint and supplies needed!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.