My step-dad had been taking things out of storage from his old house recently, and he came across some wooden lamps that he didn’t need anymore. He asked me if I could possible use them for something and I immediately said yes! I dorm at Marywood and I’m not a big fan of the harsh overhead lighting in my room. So the plan was to make the lamps a part of my dorm room at school which already has a nice galaxy theme to it. In a past post, Giving the Past a Make Over, I talked about an old jewelry box that I repainted to look like a galaxy. My lamp project has similar steps to it and I’m hoping it will inspire people to reuse some of their old furniture to make them into unique, one of a kind pieces.

Whenever I tackle a makeover project, I always like to start with a clean slate. For the lamp, I made sure to sand off all the varnish on the wooden parts. The top and bottom parts were metal so there wasn’t much I could do for that. I used a high gloss black acrylic spray paint for the wooden part of the lamp and then a white acrylic spray to make the blotches. The white paint is a good base for the color that I added later on. For the metal parts on the top and bottom of the lamp I used a silver metallic spray paint.

To give the galaxies on the lamp a colorful  blended look I used a paper towel to dab on the color instead of using a paint brush. It took several coats to make the galaxies vibrant and I had to wait for each layer of paint to dry before adding more. After I was happy with the color I used a clear semi gloss acrylic spray paint. This gives the paint a little more shine and ensures that it won’t chip off over time. I got this project done just in time before school starts and I can’t wait to light up my dorm room with my new lamp.