When the old lamp from my children's room was turning decidedly "trash-worthy", a grand idea formed and kept me from tossing it out. Originally, it had been such a darling lamp - it had magically transformed the room into spinning stars and moons at bedtime. My boys were enthralled with it!

Well, as the boys grew, so did their access advantage to the lamp. The inner spinning mylar cylinder with the moon and star designs turned into a mangled, crumpled, ripped up piece of multi-colored plastic. There was nothing salvageable there. What was left, however, was a perfectly functional light and a plain wooden frame that held four blank canvas panels. Since I couldn't possibly throw a working lamp away no matter how plain and ugly it was - I had to jazz it up!

Here's how I did it:

1. I "washed" the canvas panels with a "butter cream" colored bottled acrylic diluted with water using a 2" brush. To create a weave pattern, I first made vertical strokes on all four panels then went back and did horizontal strokes.

2. I carefully painted the wooden frame with a dark brown bottled acrylic using a small artists' brush. (if you're not confident with your painting skill - use painters tape on the canvas panels to avoid getting the brown paint on them)

3. As soon as the frame and panels were dry, I planned my stencil placement and then taped the stencil in place using masking tape.

4. I chose a Chocolate color in a Delta Stencil Cream. After removing all excess paint from my stencil brush on a paper towel, I stenciled the design on all four panels using a circular motion. I used a design from our Plaster Petite's Line, set #1.

5. For the finishing touch - I used four pretty finials that I attached to the four corners of the frame with white glue. If you don't happen to have any finials hanging around your house - check out your local home store. You'll find great finials in the window treatment aisle OR try a really awesome decorative drawer pull for the top! Get creative! Elegant or funky! Just don't move the lamp until the glue is completely dry or you will have four falling off finials!

That's all there is to our "Old Lamp Re-Make" - we hope you enjoyed this project! For more totally awesome stenciling make-over and re-decorating ideas, visit our website www.simplyspring.com often!

Spring Meese is the designer for Simply Spring Designs, a company that provides a stunning array of Raised Plaster and Wall Stencils. Spring has been in the stencil business for over ten years and is a certified interior decorator.

spring@simplyspring.com