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Shedding light on a DIY lampshade.

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This DIY lampshade (and it’s twin) are in our guest room.
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com
There’s a lot to look at in there, so these guys often don’t get much attention, but I love them. * This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure policy here.* This is not a difficult DIY project, an I’m going to show you how it’s done!
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

DIY lampshade supplies:

 

Why patience? Mostly because those shades took me H.O.U.R.S. (like around 3 per shade) to make, but in terms of difficulty, it’s certainly not a hard project at all.  You just have to embrace the monotony of cutting out hundreds of fabric circles.

 

 

Here’s the how-to…

 

MY OTHER PROJECTS

how to make a DIY lampshade:

 

STEP 1. BUY A CIRCLE CUTTING TOOL.

Do not pass go without purchasing a circle cutting tool. Or go ahead, and try this with your scissors, but don’t say I didn’t warn you 😉 I bought the OLFA rotary cutter. Will run you about $14-16. There’s even a YouTube video (actually a page of them) on how to use it. Watch one before you start your circles.

 

STEP 2: BUY YOUR FABRIC AND CUT (And cut. And keep cutting):

As far as fabric goes, that’s obviously a matter of taste, but keep in mind, this is going on a lampshade, and the purpose of a lamp, of course, is to let in light, so very light and sheer fabrics work best. The fabric I used is a very light, inexpensive polyester semi-sheer. Ran about $2-3/yard, and I purchased 2 yards for two drum shades that measure 14″ in diameter x 10″high. If the material you choose is also inexpensive, buy a little more yardage just to be on the safe side.
Now, decide on the size of your circles. My flowers are made of six circles each, the largest diameter being 6″ (the largest my circle cutter will make), and the smallest being approx. 1″ in diameter.
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

STEP 3: ASSEMBLE YOUR FLOWERS.

After you’ve made a sizable stack of your circles, start assembling them. For me, this step involved a lot of hot glue burns.  If you come up with a better way, FANTASTIC. I’m too lazy to take precautions (which is why I have no nerve endings left in my hands).

Stack your set of circles, largest on the bottom, smallest on top. Grab the stack from the center of the bottom circle by pinching the whole set of circles together (this material is NOT what I used for the project, just using this for illustrative purposes).

Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

 

Now dab some hot glue here and there, between the layers, staying toward the centermost area. Hold that pinch until the glue starts to set a bit (only about 5-8 seconds).

Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

Release, and voila! You have a flower. Don’t get too excited here because you now have to repeat that step about a thousand times.

 

STEP 4: GLUE FLOWERS TO LAMPSHADE.

Again, be miserly with your hot glue because globs of hot glue can show through the shade if you’re not careful. I glued just the very center of the flowers, plus, if there were areas where the outermost layers of the flower were “flopping” in a way I didn’t like, I would put a teeny, tiny amount on the edges to hold those in place on the shade as well.

 

Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

 

On my DIY lampshade, I ended up with 10-11 flowers per “row”, and three rows (top to bottom) total, per shade. This will vary, depending on size/shape of your shade. Play with how dense you make the flowers, as that will definitely change the look of your end result.

Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com

STEP 5: ENJOY the “light” at the end of a long, but worthwhile DIY project tunnel!

Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com
I love these DIY lampshades. And although they have some stiff competition for attention in this room from our little chandelier, and of course, Bessie the cow...
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com
I still think a DIY lampshade like these adds some beautiful texture, depth and interest to this space. Hope you’re inspired to try your hand at this project too! And if you do, let me know how it turns out!
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com
Plain Jane lampshade? Turn it into a stunner with this $5 DIY lampshade with fabric flowers. Full tutorial from www.heatherednest.com
Popular idea...What a beautiful idea!! Making fabric flowers to turn a plain lampshade into something more! Gotta try this DIY!!!

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Comments

  11. that is SOOO pretty. I want to make one this weekend. AND I love you ceiling, wow! Thanks for sharing at the Create Link Inspire party. You are being featured at Nap-Time Creations this weekend and I've spread your project around my social media… Hop on over and check it out. Happy Weekend! Emily

    Reply

  21. These are really pretty and worth that investment of time! (I also love your bedroom ceiling and that cool cow picture!) I recently did something similar with coffee filters on a lamp shade. I folded all of them into little triangles to make scalloped ruffles on the shade. Hopefully if I ever get around to redoing my daughter's room they'll find a nice home there. The look is just so pretty and romantic! I'm stopping by from the Kathe with an E party. I'd love to have you join mine called "Found & Foraged" on Saturdays, 8 pm, at http://www.averystreetdesign.com. Hope to see you!

    Reply

  31. Just made mine! I used too few flowers unfortunately so it doesn't look as good but I'm still happy with it. I'd upload a photo of I could!

    Reply

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