Tales from the Projects - Dip Dye Lampshade

Let me begin by apologizing for the pictures.  The mr. took off with my camera this morning – rude –  before I realized that I had not downloaded the pictures of this project.  So, stuck with crappy phone pics.

Ruthie's lampshade

Like most of my plans, grandiose visions were high and pink.  The pink lampshade idea came from an old Ruthie Sommers image.  A small snippet in HB a while ago (probably the awesome 'pink' issue) about her kitchen lamp with a pink shade.  People have been poking fun of my adoration of pink – ahem, Lulu and Ayars -  for even longer than they have poked fun of my love of animal print.  But hey, I cannot deny who I am and what I love.  So a pink lampshade should come as no surprise.  Not bright pink, not little girl candy pink, but more like a Georgia O’Keefe great pussini pink.  Rich, lovely, and deep.  That’s what I was going for anyway, and not exactly what I got.

I don’t hate it but I don’t worship it either.  Not a total wash because I learned a couple of valuable things.  First, it has finally come to my attention, that ALL of my grandiose plans require a bail out from the mr. at some point in the project.  I grossly underestimated the amount of water required to dip a 16” lampshade.  Second, before you dip your proverbial lampshade in the dye waters yourself, consider starting with a smaller one.  Third, get more dye than you will think you need.  Nothing is more annoying than making 3 trips to the craft place for more dye.

Project lampshade dip went down like this:  after a long, exhaustive search for colored lampshades or fancy trims, I determined that both were cost prohibitive for the size of shade I needed.  I briefly considered spray paint but given my proclivity of catching things on fire, I thought the risk not worth the reward.  Not to mention that I can’t spray paint to save my life.  Drip city.  Not wanting to rely upon the mr. on this one (he is a spray paint master), I decided upon dye.  Super cheap.  I scoped out dye colors for months.  Finally I pulled the trigger and quickly realized that like Donny, I was out of my element.  How many liters in a gallon?  How many gallons per packet?  How many dye packets would I need?  What container can I use?  Where do I go with all that dye water?

 

You can see where I am going with this.  Help!  Sink was not an option b/c it wasn’t big enough.  A laundry tub would have worked but ours is not plumbed at the moment.  The biggest container we had was a plastic bin that while empty, was deep and wide enough for the lampshade, but when filled with vast amounts of pink water looked like a disaster waiting to happen.  Could not fill up high enough to cover the entire lampshade so I had to flip that sucker every 15 minutes in hopes that I would get an even dip.  I did not want ombre.  In the end, we avoided disaster but it took two of us to deal with the water disposal b/c 20+ gallons of water is HEAVY.  Doing this twice is not necessarily fun.  Having to do it a third time to get the color I want, is even more not fun.  Plus, I feel like fate and the DIY gods will conspire to bring me those darker floors that I have always wanted, albeit it in a pink shade.

this is happening in the kitchen so I put trash bags down over my hardwoods
massive bowing out on the sides = pink floor anxiety

when i dip, you dip, we dip
and then we flip, many times to avoid a dye line

So I will live with it for now until the weather is warmer and I can do this shizzo outside.  Thumbs down for now.  To be continued…

All photos and layouts by mrs. V

kisses,  mrs. V