First, I think I should say that we don't advocate you taking more stir sticks than you need for your painting job, but once you've accumulated enough after a few paint jobs you can use them to create a lovely lampshade. The folks over at Enjoying The Simple Things have created an easy tutorial:
Using the "decorative" end of the paint stick on the bottom of the shade gives it more detail, and we knew the light would look cool coming through. Because of their slightly rounded edges it also gives more of a finished look than the other end of the paint sticks would have given. Now it's in place and we love it.
- Read More: Fine the entire tutorial at Enjoying The Simple Things.
(Images: Enjoying The Simple Things)
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The idea is very creative and although I would not take stir sticks from the store and would never accumulate that many I could use old window blinds ( which I have ) to do the same thing. Many possibilities.
Clever!
I'd like to see what this would look like with used stir sticks.
popsicle: Used sticks would be fun!
If you never took more stir sticks than you needed, then you'd never accumulate any without paint on them. But I think one of the largest retailers in the country can afford a few thousand people taking a few dozen extra free stir sticks. Now if you did make it with used ones, you could just spray paint them for a uniform color.
That shade looks great and I would have initially wanted to cut them so the indentations on the sides weren't left. But I love how the light looks through them as it is.