DIY Lamp #1

Here is a DIY project I did where I rehabed a lamp that I bought off eBay. I first saw the lamp on eBay with a starting bid of $70 and a shipping price about about $70. I absolutely loved it because it had a Geisha figure on the pole part of the lamp. Anyone that knows me, knows I seriously loves me everything Japanese. Alas, it was more than I was willing to spend on a floor lamp, no matter how cool it looked. I watched it go through two (two!) bidding cycles with no bids. Then the third time the guy posted it, he had it going for $20 with $20 shipping. Fuck yeah! Surprisingly no one tried to bid against me and I got it for a whopping $40 smackers.

^ Lady on the lamp

When I finally received it, I realized why he had the shipping so high. He had barely wrapped it with any padding and crudely taped some boxes on it. It also looked like the UPS guys had a blast tossing it around the warehouse, because parts of the metal were cracked. It must have had a rough ride to have been that damaged. Lucky for me, my fiance is a metal whiz and he said could fix it. (I'll have to post pics of the half ton milling machine we have in the garage.)

The first thing I did was to take it apart and clean it. Steve took the pieces that were cracked and sandblasted them clean and then put putty in the cracks. (Man, that sounded dirty!)

^ Before sandblasting

^ After sandblasting...so clean!

^ The putty filled cracks

Next step was to paint the individual pieces. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that process, but honestly, it was pretty boring. We used Rustolium paint in spray cans. I decided to keep the original color mostly because I couldn't think of any other color to paint it and the dark brown went with our decor in the house.

Here's the top of the finished lamp with the freaking expensive glass shade we got for it. Seriously, that thing cost more than twice the price of the lamp since the only shade that would fit it is a reproduction piece. But it looks awesome. We decided not to sandblast the Geisha on the lamp because I liked the old antique look it had to it.

Interesting trivia: This is the lamp that my engagement ring was hanging on when Steve proposed. :)

Stay tuned for DIY Lamp #2, where I rehab another lamp I got off eBay.

(After writing this post, I have come to realize that I hate the way Blogger's "compose post" screen is. >:P)