4 Ideas to Revamp that Lamp

So you have a sad old lamp and not enough money to replace it? Luckily, these days it's incredibly cheap and easy to breathe new life into your old lamp, thanks to hobby and hardware stores. Here are a few suggestions.

Rewire. If your lamp isn't working right, it's usually easy to replace any or all defective parts. In addition, if your vintage lamp has one of those scary-looking old plugs, even if the lamp works the cord should be replaced for safety reasons. Hardware stores carry a variety of lamp parts, from complete kits including cord, socket and harp, to any of these parts sold separately. Replacing a cord is one of the easiest fixes for a lamp, and replacing the whole socket isn't that much harder; you'll need to figure out how to disassemble the lamp (it's probably held together by a few nuts), and have some electrical tape and a wire cutter/stripper on hand. Whatever you disassemble, pay attention so you can reassemble the new parts correctly. Make sure your replacement kit comes with instructions, and follow them.

Replace. Sometimes a new shade gives a lamp a whole new lease on life. There are many inexpensive shades available in all sizes, shapes and colors. Take along your old lampshade to make sure the new shade is the right proportion and that the attaching hardware is compatible with your lamp.

Embellish. Embellishment is "in" and there are all kinds of ways to do it.

• Go to the scrapbooking section of your hobby store and find some dimensional paper stickers to put on your lampshade, or go to the trims section and find some beaded fringe or tassels that you can hot-glue around the rim. You can also buy (or make, if you're "crafty") a beaded "hairnet" for the shade. If beads aren't your thing, you can tie a big bow around the shade or re-cover it in the fabric of your choice. You can paint a design on a plain shade. Just keep in mind that some of these treatments will affect the light that the lamp gives off, and decide accordingly.
• The shade isn't the only part of your lamp that can be embellished. You can add a tassel to an on-off switch. You can change out or embellish the finial. You can paint the base; with modern spray paints for almost any surface, you can get an excellent result. You can either paint it a solid color, or hand-paint individual elements of the base. The possibilities for embellishment are countless!

Reinvent. If your lamp is just beyond saving, for the price of a lamp kit you can make a new lamp out of just about anything! Find a vase, a jar, a bottle, a box – anything that will stand sturdily, can be filled with something to give it weight, and can be carefully drilled with a rotary tool (practice with the rotary tool on something similar in substance that you don't care about). Run the lamp cord through it, attach it to the socket, anchor the socket to the item, attach the harp or get a clip-on shade, and it's good to go.