How to Update an Old Lamp

Do you have any items at home you use on a daily basis, but feel like they look dated or don't fit into your current home decor?  I do!  I have several lamps I've collected over the last 10 years and one of them just doesn't look like it has any personality.

Here she is:

Excuse the furry creature in the background.  

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with the lamp.  It works perfectly fine and I love the simple white lampshade, but I feel like the base needs a little oomph!  So I did what any DIY-er would do.  I went on google and typed in "colorful lamps" in the search engine and came upon this.  So I was inspired to change the color of my lamp base with spray paint!

I removed the lamp shade and gave the lamp a good wipe down to remove any dust and handprints that   have collected over the last few months.  Then, I taped off the base with painter's tape and spray painted the upper part of the lamp with Valspar's Color Radiance, Advanced Color in Mellow Spring (Gloss).  

Also, please excuse the damp, dirty ground...it rained last night and continued to rain an hour after I spray painted this.

I removed the green painter's tape and let the lamp dry for about 24 hours.  I then taped off and covered the upper part of the lamp with construction paper so that only the base of the lamp was exposed.  If you are going try this project at home, please make sure your spray paint is dry before taping it off.  The last step was to spray paint the base of the lamp with Design Master's Premium Metal spray paint in Gold Metal (found at Michaels).  After taking all the tape off and sticking the lamp shade back on, this is what I ended up with: 

Voila!

Isn't she a beauty?  I love my lamp all over again.  I love that the color is a soft, but a bright blue and the gold accent at the base of the lamp is just lovely!  I know, I know I've said LOVE soo many times in the last few lines, but I really do love it!

So if you find any lamps that you are growing bored of, you can do this at home too!  It only took about 2 days and that was only because I had to wait for the spray paint to dry.  The actual cleaning, taping off, and spray painting took about 2 hours at the most (for both top and bottom sections).  The result of the project was so rewarding, I also want to try spray painting a desk lamp I've had since my freshman year of college.  Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted on the results!