Lampshade before/after

 Two weeks ago, I picked up the Young House Love book at the Library (and I'm never returning it). While this little project wasn't a specific one from the book, it was inspired by my favorite DIY-ers (as were some other projects I can't wait to post once finished!).

This old IKEA lampshade and I go way back to a warm fall day while I lived in the most charming apartment ever, by myself, in Ballard. I really loved the simple cream color linen AND was super charmed by the whimsical embroidery on it.

Fast forward 11 years and it's collected a lot of dust. It's been through a lot of moves (7!!!!) It's been banged up, stuffed in storage, collected even more dust (did I mention the dust??) and finally put in to a shady corner of our living room, which as  you probably don't recall just yet, has a color scheme of brown/green/orange.

I decided it was time to make over this little light of mine.
First I dusted it. That didn't go so well--it just moved dust around the white linen. So I used painters tape to get into all the nooks and crannies, in between stitches and actually REMOVE the dust from the lamp

Then I went over each and every little stitch...with a fine tipped orange Sharpie!! It was tedious. Super tedious. And it unearthed some more issues, of course--like that the lining of the lamp is cracking like an egg shell. But I like the final result and it was cost friendly  (under $3) for a big (to me) impact!! Super happy with it!

TA-DA!!!!