Flipping This Large Lamp Set

Upgrading This Church Rummage Sale Lamp Set Find with a Glam Look to Bring Them Into the 21st Century

Large lamp sets are some of my favorite decor additions to a room. They can add a nice design element to accent your overall room decor, if you prefer to have more neutral wall paint colors a set of table lamps can be a nice pop of color or can be a nice way to add to the design theme. The downside is that they can be pretty expensive. For these reasons large table lamps are one of my favorite types of furniture to flip! If I find a set when thrifting that seems like they are of good quality but outdated, or just plain ugly, I always prioritize snagging them!

Church Rummage Sale Find

While attending our church’s annual rummage sale I found this large lamp set that I knew I needed to grab-the size was perfect, they were great quality and the price was right at $8. The problem was the style was very dated, definitely giving late 1980s/early 1990s vibes, but I saw the potential for sure, I’ll include a few pictures below.

The Original Design Plan

I knew immediately how I planned to refinish this lamp set. I wanted to add texture to these and planned to use design clay and then paint in a gray or cream color. I was aiming for a neutral/earthy design style, I’ll include some inspiration pictures below. I also found a light cream lamp shade set at a thrift store in their original packaging for $1 each and felt that that they would be the perfect finishing touch! It was time to get to work!

Moving on the Plan B

After giving these lamps a good cleaning with Krud Krutter and gathering all of my supplies, I got to work with applying the Crayola Air-Dry Clay, I applied it by hand and was shooting for a thin layer to avoid bulkiness. I was about one-third of the way done with applying the clay to the body of the first lamp and I took a quick break to assess how it was looking and I really wasn’t happy with the look. In my DIY experience this definitely happens and a lot of times you need to “push through” as the middle often looks a bit wonky and doesn’t seem as if it’s turning out as intended, in this instance though; the lamp really looked like a kindergarten project and that was definitely NOT the look that I was going for!! I’ll drop a picture of what it looked like at this stage below.

Although I do often keep going with the original plan when doing refinishing projects and I start doubting the look in the middle, in this instance I decided to pivot. The clay was too thick and clunky on the lamp and you could see all of my fingerprints when I was really going for more of a thin skim coating look-I’m 100% sure that this was user error/the wrong medium for the look I was going for but hey at least I gave it a shot! So I scraped this original plan and moved on to Plan B!

I cleaned off all of the clay and gave the lamps another good cleaning and went through the various spray paints that I had on hand and got to work. I settled on a light gray spray paint color for the lamp bases and a matte black for the top and got to work!

Painting the Night Away

Once I settled on the colors that I wanted to use I put on my respirator mask and got to work! Spray painting is definitely an art, it’s easy to do and overall a great beginning DIY tool BUT you need to plan to do a light spray with more coats to avoid drips, I was also working outside in the heat which affects drying time, etc as well! I personally really like to use the spray paint squeeze handle which prevents hand fatigue and can help encourage patience and avoid overspraying too quickly which will lead to drips!

I ended up applying probably four coats of spray paint to both the body of the lamps and the top metal part and electrical cord, this allowed for even coverage. I then followed up the paint with two coats of a spray paint version of a clear semi-gloss poly top coat, although lamps certainly aren’t high traffic pieces of furniture they can often get dings so I wanted to protect these from paint chipping. As you can see below I also painted the metal trim on the shades a matte black as well as they were originally a brass. After allowing for adequate dry time these lamps were done!!

Quick Reminder of What the Lamps Looked Like Before

What the Lamps Looked Like After Refinishing

Sorry for the different toned light bulbs!!!

Final Thoughts/Key Takeaways

This was a perfect example of when things don’t always go according to plan in DIY. My original plan just wasn’t working out the way I had envisioned so a quick pivot using products and tools that I already had was the perfect fix! Although these didn’t match my original vision I was really pleased with how they turned out and the couple who purchased them loved them as well (which is honestly the most important part)!
Don’t sleep on lamps for a furniture makeover project. In my experience these always sell really quickly as they are a high use/high demand furniture item. If you find a good set or even a single lamp at a thrift store that is a great size and shape but simply dated/ugly definitely scoop it up, especially if you can find a well priced shade to go with it!!
This is a very beginner friendly/fast DIY project, spray painting in general is. These lamps required no fixing so it was really just refinishing and I didn’t use any tools! This is a weekend day project for sure, the biggest time commitment is allowing for the paint to dry in between coats!

I also have a video all about this refinishing project on my YouTube channel, if you’re interested in watching click here.