How to Decorate Old Plastic Lamp Shades

Don't throw away those old dusty plastic lampshades! With this article you can create ones to match any decorating theme in 5 easy steps and save money in the process. You will see that there is no need to go and buy designer custom lightening covers when you can create your own for cheap!

Step 1: Start With a Clean Surface
Mix together a small amount of dish soap and water to clean any dust and residue off of the shades. Rinse throughly and allow to dry completely.

Step 2: Choose Your Base Color
Buy spray paint meant to adhere to plastic. (It can be picked up any local home improvement store and comes in a wide variety of colors.) Spray the shades as you would any other project, protecting surrounding areas with newspaper, in a well ventilated area and using short even vertical strokes beginning just off one side of the shade up just past the other to prevent drips and splotches, building the surface evenly. (A few extra coats is better than using too heavy of a hand, which is a sure fire way to cause streaks.)

Step 3: Create Patterns & Shapes
Now comes the fun part of how to decorate old plastic lampshades. You can leave the solid color as is for a more monochromatic look or tape off sections to spray paint a different color such as in stripes. Stencils can also be used to create patterns and shapes.

Step 4: Add Trimmings
Hot-glue trim around the bottom and top that matches the rest of your interior design scheme. From rope, to tassels, to beads, any local craft store is sure to have something that matches the theme of your room.

Step 5: Add Finishing touches
After trimming off your craft, look for ways to embellish it further with decorative pins, charms or jewels. Many of these come in stick on variations. Personalize it as much as possible to match the rest of the decor of the space.

After learning how to decorate old plastic lampshades, you will be surprised at how much money it saves you versus buying custom ones that compliment the rest of your interior design. (This process also works well with old plastic ceiling light covers as well)