Shedding Light On A Old Family Heirloom

My partner Aaron has had these two old lamps sitting in the basement collecting dust since as far back I can remember... Well, at least as long as I've known him!  When I moved in almost a year ago, one made its way to my side of the bed, and it's been collecting dust next to my face, (which seems like forever now).  I jumped at the chance to re-do one for our DIY Lamp project this semester, and the following is a detailed account of the results.

The lamp that I choose was the smaller scale of the two, each very much resembling the other, however, the lamp selected for the makeover had a little narrower in diameter base.  Each one had been beautifully hard carved / turned by my partner Aaron's grandfather and had a beautifully rich marbling of wood grain and rhythmically spiraling curves, banding, and cut-ins all away around and up-and-down the shaft of the lamp.  Each was also given a handmade pleated shade with small decorative gold glitter banding glued around the top and the bottom of the shade...  One shade in hunter green, the other in white.

The problem I was facing was how to keep the integrity of the lamp, the beautifully hand carved lamp base with its mesmerizing watery wood grain, without destroying or covering up the charming characteristics that each lamp was lovingly bestowed by his grandfather who had since past.

I decided to scrape the shade all together and chose one with an updated silhouette in a color way that would pop against the backdrop of our "Olive Branch" dusty grey-green bedroom walls, but also be easily moved from one room to another, complimenting its new placement if happen to be the case in the future.  I decided to purchase an inexpensive Black cylindrical shade from a local retailer which gently diffuses the light and causes for the upper and lower light filtration to sort of take on an hour glass feel when fully illuminated.

For the base, I decided to use a small decorative leather banding that closely matched the color of the wood grain, and used a hot glue gun to apply it within the inset rings horizontally around the base.  This helped to highlight the wood grain and divided up the rings and banding given to the shaft with his grandfathers skillful woodwork-ery.

The final result ended in a priceless family heirloom being restored to its original splendor without taking away from its hand carved natural characteristics with a fresh, classic, and timeless addition of a new shade and enhanced banded silhouette.

The results are shown below in a series of Before / After pictures.  ENJOY!