Let's Polka! (...Dot Shade) This Old Floor Lamp: $36

I bought this pair of floor lamps for $2.00 at an auction last fall. Yes, they had seen better days. But they were heavy, with great bases, and I thought it would be fun to re-make them. The one shown above started out as the one on the left in the pic below.

I removed all of the (very) old cord and light socket. Spray painted the base and the pole green. Replaced the light fixture with one that I'd picked up at Home Depot (easy instructions on the back of the package).

And when I plugged it in, and turned it on - it lit up! Yay!

I'd bought a self-adhesive shade at Joann Fabrics. It would likely be less expensive to buy a shade and spray mount the fabric but since I'd never covered a shade before, I thought it would be easier to use the self-adhesive one.

I covered the shade in a fabric I purchased from the fabric store, and hot glued the pompom trim around the base of it. I also purchased the closest shade of bias tape I could find, and glued it around the top of the shade (use Eilene's Tacky Glue for this step, so the bias tape dries flat) because I don't like a raw edge showing on anything. You probably won't be able to match your fabric color exactly, but the neatness of the seam binding makes it all seem less obvious anyway. (If you're good with an iron, you could also cut and make your own binding from the lampshade fabric. Especially if the fabric has just a little bit of stretch of give to it, and wouldn't need to be cut on the bias.)

This is a very heavy duty lamp, and I love the detail on the base.

I'm happy with it.

Cost:
Old floor lamp: $1
Paint: $3
Self-adhesive lamp shade: $14
Fabric to cover the shade: $5
Pompom edging: $4
Light socket replacement: $9
               total = $36