Goodwill Lamp Makeover

Being a law student, I am poor.  I'm living on loans.  So decorating an apartment and making it feel like home is kind of trickier than it is for people with oh, I don't know...a job.

It is NOT impossible.

Armed with Google and a little imagination, I turned an ugly lamp into a beautiful one for less than $20.  How awesome is that?

I started at Goodwill. Lamps are usually easy to find there.  You usually can find those ugly ginger jar lamps-- like the one I found for $5:

 

Admit it, it's pretty ugly.  That's why I decided to coat it with the silver spray paint you see there.  It is a primer/paint all in one, an has a "hammered finish" for some texture.

I taped off the cord to prevent it from getting sprayed:

I then took it outside, where I spread out some newspaper.  I taped the bulb socket the same way I did the cord.  I sprayed a nice coat of silver spraypaint, let it dry, and then coated it again:

I let it dry for about 30 minutes (so it wasn't tacky to the touch), and then took the lamp inside. I then had to get that pesky wire topper off.

I don't have any pictures of this part because I had n idea what I was doing, but I simply peeled back the felt on the bottom of the lamp and unscrewed the top part, unclipped the metal lampshade holder, and screwed everything back together (make sure you have someone with little arms for this part!). 

I went to Target and found a nice burlap lampshade on sale for $9.  Placing that on top was the icing on the cake!

Voila! High class on a law school budget. Totally easy, totally cheap.  Not going to lie-- I am pretty proud of this.

Thoughts?