Lighting and other craft room related news.

It's funny that we don't always take into consideration lighting when we plan projects.  Without proper lighting colors can look off, and a room's "feel" can change drastically from what was originally intended.  One of the things that I knew I would be sacrificing when we put in the wall was natural lighting into my craft room.  Not a huge deal, in the long run because if I need to check a color I can always go to a window, and I have an Ott light, but I had to think a little bit about how I would ensure adequate lighting over my desk.

On one of our yard sale outings this past summer I finally found a swag lamp.  It's nothing spectacular, just a run of the mill wicker swag lamp.  One might call it vintage.  :)  It was exactly what I was looking for to add light to my area without adding to the already cluttered floor space. 

What I didn't like, however, was the faded shabby dark brown color of the lamp.  My craft room walls are brown, but this just looked dark and drab to me.   SO...after a trip to Canadian Tire's paint section I am in the process of rehabbing my poor shabby lamp.  I forgot to take a picture of the before, so I found this one online to give an idea of the before color:

It's not exactly the same as my lamp, but is very similar...although mine has an upper flare on the top.  This one looks sort of chopped off to me, but it at least gives you an idea of the dark brown color I started with. I have gotten several coats of paint onto it in a light almond color.  Of course, then I wasn't happy with how the old braid looked on it so I've stripped that off and I am going to replace it with new that I had left over from another project.  Just waiting for the latest coat of paint to dry.  It's amazing how much paint older wicker sucks up.  This is my second can!  I will update you on the progress of this project as I go, it shouldn't take much longer to have it done and ready to hang.  John says for the trouble I am going through I should just buy a new lamp.  lol...but why?  This one cost me a dollar, and two cans of spray paint...and will be exactly what I need. 

I have been working on the craft room a fair bit, too.  I papered the "inside" of the new wall last week and put in two new cabinets, as well as moving the other two over.  I have one for embellishments, one for only Stampin Up! stamp sets, one for tools and one for die cutting dies, cuttlebug folders, non SU! sets and the like.  I still think I need at least one more cabinet, possibly two, and will keep an eye for sales on them.  The wooden cubby tower that I had my stamps in before has been moved out as has the cd tower that had my punches in it.  Just those two pieces of furniture took up so much floor space!  I will update this with pictures as soon as I get some taken.