DIY Brass Wall Lamp IKEA Hack
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Transform an old IKEA wall lamp into a stylish new wall feature using plastic flower pots and spray paint with this DIY Brass Wall Lamp IKEA Hack.
Hi there! I’m Amanda from Life at Cloverhill. Last spring, I took on the One Room Challenge and gave the master bedroom in our 1903 farmhouse a whole new look. Over the years much of this room’s century home charm had been covered up or removed and I was excited to add some character back into the space like with this easy DIY brass wall lamp IKEA hack.
Over the course of six weeks, we did several DIY projects including adding trim and a panel wall, making a DIY Wrought Iron Headboard, painting a dresser, hanging artwork, and updating the wall lamps from our old apartment.
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Brass wall lamp IKEA hack for bedrooms
Back when my husband and I lived in our apartment together, I’d hung up these IKEA ARSTID wall lamps on either side of the bed. When we moved to our farmhouse, we really didn’t know what we wanted to do with our master room and decided to wait and see before we started drilling holes in the plaster.
how to attach A brass wall lamp to the wall
Here’s how I hacked the IKEA lamps and turn them into wall lights. It’s so easy.
I’d seriously debated just replacing them with new brass ones, but all the brass swing arm wall lamps I could find were $250+ EACH! so very quickly it became apparent that I needed to find a way to update the ones we already had in storage.
1. replace the lampshades
I’d seen other hacks where you can pull the fabric off the lampshade and spray paint the plastic shell, but when I tried that the entire lampshade fell apart and was covered with a hardened glue. That’s when I got the idea to replace the lampshade completely.
Originally I was looking for a metal planter, but I couldn’t find anything that was the right shape or size to replace the existing lampshade. Then a quick trip to the dollar store proved to be helpful when I found this plastic planter for $1.50 each. It was the perfect lamp shade shape and I loved the interesting geometric pattern.
Using a hole saw, I drilled a hole on the bottom that matched the one from the original lamp shade.
2. repaint the lamp and lampshade
The shade was a perfect fit and attached to the light bulb socket with the original threaded collar.
To get the lighter brass color I was hoping for, I used Rustoleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint in Pure Gold. The actual brass color they have was much darker than I was going for, but the gold was closer to the brass finish I’d seen on other lamps I liked.
It took several light coats until I got the coverage I was looking for both on the inside and outside of the new lamp shades. I also gave the metal body of the wall lamp (including the pull string!) a few light coats as well. I left everything to dry for several days before assembling it back together.
3. attach them to the wall
Aren’t these cute? I put them on each side of the bed. I can even use one as a reading light at night too.
I cut a strip of the original white lamp shade plastic so that it fits perfectly into the new plastic shade. This just helped give the lamp more of a glow at night, instead of creating a pattern all over the walls.
How to Hang up wall lamps without holes in the wall
If you live in a rental or don’t want to put holes in your wall, use some Command strips. The large ones will hold 4 pounds per set. Plus, they are really easy to move if you decide the lamps are too close to your bed.
I’m so happy with how this simple DIY Brass Wall Lamp IKEA Hack turned out, and how our whole master bedroom makeover came together. I still can’t believe we did it all in six weeks! The rest of the farmhouse can sometimes be in total disarray as we slowly renovate each room but we’ve got this quiet and calm oasis to relax in every night.
Head over to my blog for more DIY projects, recipes and crafts:
Mini Chocolate Brownie Souffles
Farmhouse Powder Room Makeover
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