I've had this old quirky elephant lamp from Target for several years, and although I loved its silly charm, I felt like it was in need of an update. Using some fabric, and new shade, and some spray paint, I managed to change the look of my old friend.
As for the shade, I used an old Urban Outfitters lampshade that I had from another lamp and covered it with sheets of brocade fabric. Read more about that process in this earlier post.
After cleaning the elephant base thoroughly (although it looks like wood, it was actually some sort of plastic), I allowed it to dry and then covered it with a pastel blue, all-surface spray paint. Several coats later, it was finished: fresh new take on an old junky lamp!
(Images: Andie Wurster)
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Very nice!
Love the fabric on the shade. Mustache girl freaks me out a bit. ;)
Nice. You can better see and appreciate the detail work in the lamp.
Really, really cute re-do. I can't believe it came from Target!
The shade pattern is too much for me, I would go for a more neutral thing. Anyhow, the old shade was much worse.
Love the elephant gray blue!
Lampshade does not compute.
nice job but the lampshade is too big and busy.
Totally disagree. I LOVE the intricate lampshade paired with the simple little solid-color elephant. Great job.
Great job! Definitely an eye-catcher!
LOVE!
The lampshade and the blue lamp are amazing and look great like that. It's gone from a $25 lamp to a $100+. Very chic! I have a similar lamp of a monkey that I am now going to do something like this with. Thanks for the inspiration!
Love the blue elephant... the proportion of the new shade is a harder sell. Would altering the shade in the first picture be an option? Dye, perhaps?
I like moustache girl. Etsy, I presume. Can you post the artist's seller name?
Yes, the Mustache Girl is from a wonderful Portland artist, Ashley Goldberg of Ashley G and Drew.
I love this! How did you attach the fabric and get it to be non-wrinkly on the shade? :) love the look!
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Reading a post correcting someone's grammar is far more annoying than the actual error itself.
Nice redo. I particularly love the shade. Thanks for sharing!
I would have chosen a stronger color.....Chinese red, burnt orange. Pale blue on an elephant does't work for me.
Nice, Nice, Nice!!
i really like the new spin! i might be partial to candy colored/spray painted treasures paired with mod fabrics...
(for what it's worth, i second that errors themselves are far less annoying, JSFKCK)
I like the lampshade. The shape of the flower petals is like the flower petals on the base (even if the flowers have a different number of petals... I don't care to revive my freshman biology knowledge as to what that might mean, though).
I liked the before and I like the after. Either way, it's a cute lamp.
All the texture is gone from the redo. I probably would have brushed on a darker blue.
The proportion of a lampshade has as much to do with where the lamp lives as the lamp itself. This seems to work in both respects.
Love! I have the same lamp and I was also thinking it needed a little something. Thanks!
Loving the pastel blue and that telephone is fabulous
Nice re-do. Love the quirky.
Fabulous!!!!
As much as I loved that bead fringe when it first appeared, the look is dead, and this redo is a relief. (As for the person who thinks the pale blue doesn't work for an elephant, REAL elephants are closer to that color than to Chinese red, and it seems to be working for them.)
No.