A Jute Wrapped Upcycled Lamp

I always love a makeover project -where an uglyish object can be salvaged and made into something a bit more attractive with very little money and effort. 

This project started with a pretty ugly 90's lamp. I've had it for like, forever, and I think it may have come from Target. It was ugly but basic and has been living in Kit's room since we moved into our current house 10 years ago.

Jute can be tricky. More often than not its use in decor leans heavily to "nautical", which I don't like. I noticed though, that a design company I really admire, was using jute in a most understated and elegant way. I thought, why not wrap this thing up and see if it looks a bit better. I know this is not earth shattering, but it was satisfying and fun. 

I bought 5 meters of 6mm jute on Etsy. I started to wrap from the top of the neck, securing the first wrap with glue and a piece of kitchen twine. Later I trimmed that long piece with the tape and let the stub fray a bit.

I used a very quick drying glue and wrapped only a few rotations at a time. 

A basic metal clip held the rope in place perfectly as the glue dried, which took only minutes.

I used the same tie-off method at the end of the swirl.

As part of the project, I also recycled the shade. This is one of those plastic shells covered in fabric.

My method is to remove the tape and then carefully peal the shade away from the wire structure with a fine blade.

Then I use the removed shell as a template to cut fabric for a new shade before reattaching it. If this were a straight drum, there'd be no need for the template and I'd have left on the substrate on and gone right to the fabric, as was the case here with this burlap shade redo. Laundry pins work wonders for this method and I use Bish's Tear Mender, which I brush on liberally. 

 Fun little project. Cheers.