https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/glow-lightshade • Posted by Britta J.
My friend was saying he needed a new lightshade for his room, and soon after I discovered an old paper shade perfectly preserved in the compost bin from the previous tentants! So I got it out, dusted it off, and thought about how to decorate it. This took a while as I am wont to forget about things and then come back to them. Eventually one day I was bored and suddenly decided that what it needed was some funky paint work! Thus ensued the creativity... I didn't take photos as I went along but these pictures illustrate the step descriptions :)
My friend was saying he needed a new lightshade for his room, and soon after I discovered an old paper shade perfectly preserved in the compost bin from the previous tentants! So I got it out, dusted it off, and thought about how to decorate it. This took a while as I am wont to forget about things and then come back to them. Eventually one day I was bored and suddenly decided that what it needed was some funky paint work! Thus ensued the creativity... I didn't take photos as I went along but these pictures illustrate the step descriptions :)
Get your paper shade ready. This style is everywhere now, pick one up from IKEA if you don't have one spare already. I opened mine out with the wire support inside it so that all the paper was uncreased and ready for painting. I held it and rotated it in my left hand rather than have it hanging since I didn't want it swinging about all the time.
Squeeze a small amount of dark blue acrylic onto a pallette and dilute with about triple the amount of water. Use a paintbrush to apply this all over the outside of the lightshade, making some bits darker or lighter (more concentrated or watery paint) as you please for a nice textured effect.
Don't worry about allowing that last step to dry, if it's wet it helps the next load of paint blend in. To your diluted blue paint, add a big squeeze of silver acrylic and mix. Dab and flick this on all over until you are happy with the coverage.
Finally, take a smaller brush and dot on the glow-in-the-dark paint all over. Try to do clusters and some bigger or smaller than the rest, to make it look like constellations of stars. Allow to dry.
finished lightshade
Allow it to soak up some light and then switch off the lights! My camera isn't sensitive enough to pick up the glow so I drew a picture to help you imagine :)