Vintage Slides Lampshade

This is a project that I was really excited about while Chris was skeptical. Although when I was making this he kept saying "I love lamp" which I guess is a quote from a movie. When I was finished I was thinking I love THIS lamp. It melds our vintage and industrial styles together, I think, and is so unique.

You need: A small desk lamp (I got this one at Walmart for $12), vintage slides (which I bought 50 of on Etsy for $5 plus shipping)

You don't have to use a store bought lamp like this. My first attempt included finding a cool lamp base and an old lamp shade, but buying a small lamp worked out much better. 

So, first, remove the lamp shade and cut of the fabric.  

All you need are the top and bottom metal rings. Don't throw out the fabric just yet though. 

Use it as a template to layout your slides. I used 12 columns of 4 slides, so 4 rows and 48 slides in total.

I attached the columns of four slides together using jump rings, pliers and a metal hole punch. You can use any sort of small hole punch for this.

Next I used larger jump rings to attach the columns to the top metal hoop. I did this with the top part of the lamp shade on the lamp which made it much easier.

Once they are all attached, use jump rings to also connect them to the bottom metal hoop. After that I want in and connect the rows.

I didn't measure where to punch the holes, but you could. I guessed on one side then used that hole to determine where to punch one on the slide next to it, you want them to be right next to each other so they hang evenly. 

Once all of the slides are attached on all four sides, you're done!

This lamp shade looks especially good lit up. I'm going to pretend all of the families in the slides are related to me.

Let me know if you have any questions or if you decide to try this out!

Suitcase Side Table

So far the most fun part of this blog has been discovering each other's style. I love things inspired by nature, as you saw in the last post, and anything vintage. Chris likes, well, I'm not sure yet, but he is open-minded to mine. So this project was my idea. It's inspired by some old suitcases I found at an estate sale this weekend and the perfect fabric that I came across at a flea market. This project truly just fell into place - don't you love when that happens? 

Anyway, I came home Saturday morning after visiting all of the yard and estate sales in the area with the supplies, and Chris figured out how to make it work. 

First we used this odd little table, or desk, that we found at a thrift store for the legs and ended up using the top as a bookshelf that you'll see later in this post. So, you'll need table legs, either from an existing table or make your own using galvanized piping (you'll see another easy, awesome way to use piping in a post later this week). This table that we found was just about the right height, we just took about 3 inches off each leg using a pipe cutter. 

Chris removed the legs while I got started covering the suitcase. 

I cut the appropriate size of fabric and then Chris took over. We didn't use any glue, we just used a flat head screwdriver to push the fabric into the lip on the suitcase. If we ever wanted to change the fabric, it would be very easy to do. 

                              

Once the top of the suitcase was covered, we (by we, I mean Chris) got started attaching the legs. He pre-drilled holes in both the suitcase and a piece of wood which he used to provide better support.  

You'll want your wood support vertical rather than horizontal so both sides of your table leg are supported, you could also use a larger piece of wood that covers the whole inside of the suitcase. 

Each leg had two holes on each side. Chris first attached the outer most side, because on the inside he used another piece of wood to make the legs slanted outward. 

Once the legs are secured, you're finished! And now you have a unique side table, or coffee table, or whatever you'd like to use it as! 

                          

                            

And here are some pictures of our seating area, which of course is still a work in progress. But I'm glad to have a place to sit, rather than just a large empty room. We used the top of the table as somewhat of a bookshelf. It's not permanent, but definitely a good fix for the moment. Here's to finally getting somewhere!