A Walk in the Countryside: tasseau lamp

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Ballard Copy Cat Lamp with Seagrass Shade

This is my first time joining in at the Copy Cat Challenge over at DebbieDoo’s. I've never joined before because I can’t seem to make up my mind about what to do. I mean, everywhere you turn there is amazing inspiration! I had been planning on doing this project for my office and decided to go and ahead and finish so I could join in.

I love the sea grass shades that you see at Ballard Designs! After Hunter came home with this vintage lamp that looked at LOT like the tasseau lamp that Ballard has, I decided to make my own seagrass shade.

This is the Ballard lamp. The one pictured here is in a rubbed black finish. Forgive the rumpled look of the catalog, I have looked though it quite a few times.

And this is a close up of the Ballard shade.

I saw another DIY seagrass shade made by thecountrychiccottage.net. She used a seat cover that was made of the same material as my placemat.

I purchased the shade from Wal-Mart for $10 and already had the placemat.

This is the lamp that Hunter had. The bottom part of the base is a lot like the tasseau lamp but the top part has a faux candle slip cover thing. It is old and had the cloth covered electrical cord so I got Hunter to rewire it for me.

Here’s a closer look at the placemat. I unraveled it by clipping the threads. I then started hot gluing from the bottom of the shade.

I made sure the first row was straight and covered the bottom outside edge of the shade. At the end of the run, I cut the material and glued end to end. I started the next run directly on top of the previous one.

I made sure that my rows stayed as straight as possible. After I completed all the rows, I glued a vertical piece over the seams, tucking in under at the bottom.

It took less than one placemat to do this shade and was very easy.

It’s home, for now, is in the entry way. Once I get my office completed, it will be moved to my desk. I considered painting the lamp base but I kind of like it how it is and my desk is white so the darker finish will look better in there.