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Home โ€บ Decor and furniture

Brass lamp makeover plus a colorful cord

September 6, 2012by Christina
Quick and easy makeover for an old yard sale lamp, plus a new colorful cord.
Project cost $5

I picked up this little desk lamp for my office from a yard sale.  โ€œAn ugly little lampโ€ as The Hubs called it. 

vintage brass desk lamp

Knowing me, when we got home and unpacked our stuff, he immediately asked what color I was going to paint it.  But as soon as he asked the question, he excitedly said โ€œMatte black!โ€  I said I had been thinking maybe turquoise or teal.  He really liked his matte black idea better though.  And after thinking about it, I like it too.  Every room needs at least one thing in blackโ€”no matter how smallโ€”to keep the room grounded.  (If you havenโ€™t heard that before, I know it sounds funny, but try it and youโ€™ll see.) 

Matte black it was for our second-hand brass lamp makeover.

So, can you paint brass lamps?

Yes!

All it takes to paint the brass is:

  1. A light sanding
  2. A thorough wipe-down with rubbing alcohol (you don’t want any dust sitting in the cracks or your paint will chip off)
  3. Covering delicate parts you don’t want paint in with painters tape
  4. A coat of spray primer
  5. A coat of spray paint

When you’re spray painting (both the primer and the paint), just make sure you spray light coats. The thicker you spray it on, the more likely it is to peel or chip off.

Iโ€™m very happy with it being matte black.  I love how the brass on the inside lights up when the lamp is on and casts a nice warm glow. 

vintage brass lamp makeover with paint

I still wanted a little color though. And the the ugly brown cord was still bothering me.  Usually a cord wouldnโ€™t bother me much, but this one will be in full view since the wall outlet that the lamp plugs into is is a good 4 feet away from my desk.  So I wrapped it in yarn.

Wrap lamp cord in yarn

How to wrap the cord in yarn:

The yarn wrapping is really simple to do. 

  1. Just cut a piece about 6 feet long
  2. Tie a basic knot around the cord, at the half-way (3 feet) point of your yarn. 
  3. Slide the knot up to the top of the cord and just start winding it around the cord. 
  4. Put a dab of hot glue on the cord about every 8 inches to help it to stay in place. 
  5. About a foot before your yarn runs out, cut a new piece like the first one
  6. Knot the new piece on top of the current yarn and keep wrapping.  For a while, youโ€™ll be working with 4 pieces, which will make it go much faster. 
  7. When you get to the end of a string, just hot glue it down and keep going with the rest. 
vintage lamp with yarn wrapped cord

It only took about 30 minutes to wrap the cord and about $2 for the yarn (thereโ€™s a ton left). 

The paint we already had on-hand as usual.

So with the lamp at $3 and the yarn at $2, this was a $5 lamp, with about an hour of work.

Next time you see an cheap brass lamp, buy it and give it a makeover!

We also gave a ceiling light a super easy makeover (with nothing but a sanding block!). And replaced an ugly ceiling fan with DIY industrial lighting. Check out all of our lighting projects here.


As for this powder room project of oursโ€ฆ  Iโ€™ll give you just one example of how it is going so far: 

I told you about our great plans to spend all of Sunday and Monday working on it.  The first project was hanging the light fixture, but we forgot to buy a mounting box for it.  First thing Sunday, we tried to go to the store to buy one, but when we got in our car, the gear shift broke.  We messed with it for a while, but got nowhere, so we got in the other car, which started just fine but wouldnโ€™t stay running.  Instead of powder room remodeling, the Hubs spent the day fixing the cars and I caught up on housework.  We did eventually get out of the driveway and manage to get the light hung, but thatโ€™s it so far.  Hopefully this Sunday will be better. 

Painted desk lamp with the text "how to makeover a thrift store lamp"

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Tags: craft room, lighting, mini projects, office, second-hand furniture

A fun change in plans

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About Christina

I'm a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

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  1. Anne Lien

    I love how your lamp turned out! =D wrapping the cord is a genius little touch! Hope you find the turquoise color you love someday ๐Ÿ˜‰
    Too bad you had some bad luck.. I wish you some good luck for this weekend!
    Xx

    Reply
    • Christina

      Thanks Anne, and thanks for your suggestion for adding some color to it!

  2. onshore

    Hey, that cord wrapping is really cool!
    Oh, too bad about the cars. Hope they work well now.

    Reply
    • Christina

      Thanks Leena!

  3. Lisa

    I would be afraid to wrap something like that around an electrical cord! Especially a used one, since you have no idea if it has any nicks in the insulating plastic.
    It might not be a safe idea.

    Reply
    • Christina O

      Thank you for bringing that up.

      One bonus of buying an old house is that we have learned a whole lot about electrical work. If the cord had been in less than ideal shape, I would have rewired the lamp myself.

      So, don’t worry, it’s condition was examined and there is actually no danger in wrapping the insulated cord in yarn. ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Jesse

    Fantazzles – just what I needed. hot glue, that’s the missing link I wasn’t thinking of! i’m bout to wrap up all my cords, and was considering friendship bracelet style.. but ugh! this is much better. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Christina

      Glad I could help, Jesse! It’s way easier than friendship bracelet style.

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