Have you heard about Freecycle? It is made up of 4,876 groups with 6,905,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.
I think it is great. While you do see some odd requests (my favorite was someone looking for a poster with 13 black and white cows on a green background), most are for items people give away/throw away every day. Like this lamp.
I got it from someone who was redoing their basement and the brown didn't go with the new color scheme. It didn't come with a shade, but the price was right (free). Glad the woman didn't know how easy it would be to make it look fresh and new with a few coats of paint.
I started by scuffing the ceramic slightly with a sanding sponge just to give the primer something to "grab." Then a coat of white primer. Followed by several coats of white glossy spray paint.
Top it with a shade from Target and we have a lamp that doesn't look anything like what we started with.
I think it looks lovely sitting on top of another one of my frugal finds, the Craigslist nightstand that cost less than $20. I just love the way the white sets off the blue wall color.
Once I get the bedding and other details finalized in our front bedroom (aka the boys room), I will be adding some coordinating trim to the edge of the white shade. Wish me luck that I can get those decisions made in the next few weeks.
Cost of the Project:
$ 0.00 lamp off Freecycle
2.00 1/2 can primer
3.50 can white glossy spray paint
20.00 lamp shade from Target
$25.50 Total Cost
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