I ain't scared

I have been in search of well priced black drum shades for six months. Seriously. Six months. For a long time the Target website said they carried them in store. Well I go to Target more than any sane person should ever admit publicly and let me tell you...they don't. At least not the three Targets I frequent. Pottery Barn and Urban Outfitters both came up empty too. I even tried Walmart. Nothing. Lots of online retailers carry them of course but it can be a small fortune to ship a lampshade since they have to be packed in enormous boxes.


Yesterday I finally got sick of looking at these oatmeal-y drum shades and decided to do what any desperate person would do. I brought them out to the garage and proceeded to spray paint them black. Yup, spray paint. Worked like a charm and took all of 10 minutes.


Isn't that SOOOO much better? The shades before were so blah. They just blended into the background and were doing nothing for the lamps. Now they have some presence.

Because I like to keep it real with you guys, I'll show you that when the lamps are on, the shade looks like total poop.


But I don't care because A. these lamps are hardly ever on. The last time I turned one on before this photo was for Christmas dinner. And B. it's not like this is a permanent fix. I just needed to get those beige shades out of my life quickly. I bet I could somewhat fix this blotchiness if I painted the inside black as well but I'm more likely to just recover the entire shade in a black linen if I can't ever find black drum shades that work.

When they're off, I'm quite satisfied.


And since we're keeping it real, I'll show you what's going on under this buffet.


Yup, this is real life people...not some magazine shoot :)

What's the craziest thing you've ever spray painted?