I really like my house.  I’ve lived here for almost 4 years now and I’ve remodeled 95% of it myself.  The one downside about my house is the lack of windows, resulting in low light in most of the rooms.  On top of that, I have large trees outside blocking the little bit of light I do get.  It’s great for the energy bills, but I wish there was more light.  Someday when I have to replace the roof, I may just add some skylights.

With this situation, I really need a few more lamps in the house.  I have very modern decor and modern lamps are crazy expensive.  I’ve been searching for lamps at thrift stores and on craigslist for well over a year now.  A couple of days ago, I found a pair of table lamps.  

The lamps are retro Eames era style, and from the research I did, might be the real thing.  The company that made them, Portable Luminaire, is probably out of business, but the comparable lamps I found retailed for $75 to $300 each.  These were $10 each.

I loved the design of the lamps, but the old yellowed, unbleached cotton fabric was not working for me.  The fabric looked like something that was on the front of my grandparents huge stereo and record player.  Time to alter…

I didn’t do the before photos, but here’s the after.  I used 4 types of fabric on each lamp, all scraps I had from old shirts, pants and previous projects.  They don’t put out a lot of light, but they do give nice ambient light in the dark corner of my loft.

I could have bought some new lamps a long time ago, but I decided to wait and look for a deal on something I really liked.  By not being in a hurry, I saved over $100, I got something unique that might even be worth a lot of money and I reused something unwanted.  A win-win-win.  :)

When people tell me I’m lucky at thrift stores, that’s not at all true.  The truth is that I go there a lot and I’m not in a hurry to find specific things.  Needs? Yes, go buy it new.  Wants? Hold out and find a deal.