apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

If you can take the glass globes off the fixture and run them through the dishwasher, the combined action of washing and drying will probably strip most of the film off for you. Any bits left off will then be easily removed using hot soap and water (and yeah, some elbow grease) in your sink.

Glass is pretty hard stuff. You could use a Scotch Brite scrubber or something like that. Just nothing metal.

Nail polish remover or paint thinner has worked for me.
If the glass can be removed from the fixture and placed in a plastic bucket covered with paint thinner overnight, that is the easiest way.
All you need to do is wipe off with a paper towel any remaining bits.
Polish remover is easier to use on small glass items that cannot be removed from metal fittings, a light coat of petroleum jelly protects the metal while you clean around it with remover soaked swabs.
I have also read on crafting blogs that bleach, in various solutions, can be used the same way to remove the colored film but have never tried the bleach.

Good luck, they will look great!

I'd take the glass globe off, put it in the sink, then brush the inside with a gel paint stripper. Then once the stripper's worked it's magic, the gel should wipe right off.

(Not that I've actually tried this with faux stained glass; I'm just guessing it would work, since it works beautifully to remove paint from glass or metal--)

what about bleach? when i was younger there was a holiday craft project where we would strip the metallic paint from the insides of round christmas ornaments and then fill them with mini snowmen, glitter, etc. i'd imagine you could give the same treatment to your lamp.

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/old_glass_ornaments_in_to_clear_blank_slates_

Use a steamer. It will loosen the adhesive and you'll be able to peel the color film from the glass. If you pull slowly, the adhesive will come up with the film and minimize the amount of scraping you'll have to do. I recently removed solar tinting from two windows and a sliding glass door in a few hours with minimal mess and scraping. I tried the ammonia & garbage bag method first with no results whatsoever. I called a window tinting company and they said they use a steamer. The following link provides instruction for removing tint from car windows but it's the same process I used (minus the six pack):

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-remove-car-window-tint:-the-not-messy,-chea/

I ditto Kasiav -- did the same craft project!

Spray on oven cleaner? - seems to remove most stuff

I have a slump glass tray, made by a friend who had tried her hand at painting part of the underside and failed miserably (at her own admission). I tried nail polish remover, hydrochloric acid, steel wool, etc, with limited success.

Then I ran it through the dishwasher, and the paint fragmented and peeled off as easy as pie.

So as TexasDeb suggested, if these shades can be full detatched from the metal work, and they are not damaged or cracked, you could try leaving them in the dishwasher for a couple of cycles.