DIY Lamps

the original finish

A couple of years ago I came upon these awesome 1970’s lamps at my local thrift store. Not only were they a great price at $12.99 each, but I loved everything about them…the size, the shape, the texture and even the colour. As someone who grew up in the 70’s, the avocado green was a throw back to those times, and brought back memories of my mom’s orange shag carpets, funky striped furniture and groovy lamps.

Even though I really did like the colour it doesn’t really work with the other colours on the main floor of our home. I had some of Behr’s Ocean Abyss left over from the dresser I refinished recently so tried it out on the lamps after applying a tinted primer first. Since they were meant to be used in the livingroom, after painting them and putting them in there I realized that I wasn’t really happy with the colour in that room. As much as I love the colour, it’s a blue-based teal and I thought that a more green-based teal would work better. Back to the drawing board.

with tinted primer

Back to Home Depot where I found the colour I wanted to use, but it wasn’t from my favourite paint manufacturer. Sico’s Fjord Blue was the colour that caught my eye so I had them colour match it for my fave Behr paint. This one is more of a green based teal than blue, so I’m much happier with it in place in the livingroom. The colour isn’t quite right in either of the photos…in “real life” the left image is bluer and the right image more closely resembles the colour of the couch.

The thrifting and DIY gene is pretty ingrained in me, first from necessity for saving money when I was younger, to now doing it for the sheer enjoyment of it. How many of you can relate to that?

Ocean Abyss

Fjord Blue