When my parents were here at Christmas, you may remember that I had to go foraging in brocantes and depot ventes (or junk shops) even more than usual, to see if I could find some clocks that needed fixing in order to keep my dad amused during his visit. Anyway, on one of those foraging trips I got distracted by a standard lamp – as you do -which I thought might go well in my lounge.
I was very pleased with it when I got it home and it was all in full working order but, although the fabric on the lampshade was very pretty, I felt it looked a bit ’bedroomy’ for a lounge so decided to change it. I had just bought a book called ‘Liberty Book of Home Sewing’ which features their fabrics and some projects to make with them – Liberty Porn, as I call it. As luck would have it, one of the projects is for recovering a lampshade. Much as I love their florals, I wanted something a bit different and it had to have red in it as my lounge has a bit of a red theme going on so I found some vintage Liberty fabric online which seemed just right. The project is a bit scary as it involves tearing – yes, tearing! – the fabric into strips from selvedge to selvedge and I found that a bit nerve wracking but I had faith and it worked fine.
So now I have a cool standard lamp with a Liberty vintage design shade and a feeling of unbearable smugness and all for around 40 euros.
#1 by Anna Aicher on February 20, 2012 - 02:08
Hi Lynn,
Your lampshade looks very nice and you did a great job on it!!! I ordered that same book from amazon.uk and they sent a message to me and said it was not available any longer and I was very disappointed. Anyways, glad you got a copy and made good use of it for sure. A+
Hugs,
Anna
#2 by Jan Marriott on February 20, 2012 - 03:21
always love those Art Nouveau Liberty prints, they never date and are timeless
#3 by wendy on February 20, 2012 - 11:58
The lamp is such a great design and your cover turned out beautiful. I must get to London sometime and visit Liberty to see their fabrics – everybody seems to be talking out them and I feel totally mystified.
#4 by tialys on February 20, 2012 - 12:18
Thanks everybody.
Wendy – you don’t have to go to the actual Liberty store to see and buy the fabrics but, if you can, you should as it’s beautiful. You can find a bit of info on their illustrious history here http://www.liberty.co.uk/fcp/content/about-liberty/newsarchive
#5 by Jenn on February 21, 2012 - 06:10
Wow! A real transformation from the previous lampshade, plus your choice of fabric is more chic than the example in the book. (Which I finally got. Love that they include projects for my basic sewing level.)
#6 by Houdini on February 26, 2012 - 21:01
Love that deep red Liberty fabric – absolutely gorgeous lamp too – you certainly find some beautiful things during your foraging