This is the story of an ugly lamp. Not just any ugly lamp… an ugly rooster lamp. Yes, I said rooster! Let me start from the beginning…When I first met my sweet husband, we lived two and a half hours away from each other. We talked on the phone for hours each night, falling deeply in love with each other through our words. One conversation I remember in particular was the night I asked him what his house looked like. How was it decorated? I think the way a man keeps his home says a lot about him!
His response was something to the effect of, “I don’t know. It’s kind of old, and I don’t really have anything decorated. Except for this rooster lamp that my uncle made.” At the time I didn’t think much about the rooster lamp… I was too busy falling madly in love with my future husband!
Fast forward to when we moved in with each other and Mini Martha (that’s me!) took over the bachelor pad. I cleaned, I de-cluttered, I organized, and I decorated. Jeremy, bless his heart, gave me free rein to do whatever I wanted… with just a few exceptions. One of them (yep, you guessed it!) being the ugly rooster lamp had to stay.
For 4 years I moved that black rooster lamp from table to table, hoping that it would suddenly match my decor and become a gorgeous, country-chic piece that everyone would be jealous of. I even painted it burgundy red to try to give it some new life, but alas, it was still the ugly rooster lamp that I couldn’t get rid of and had no where to put!
After we moved to our new house, I was determined to make that darn lamp beautiful somehow. I grabbed some of my favorite paint colors and went to town. This is how it turned out:
I knew I wanted a distressed look, so I started by painting the edges of the rooster and lamp base with black paint to give it some definition and dimension. Then the rooster and center post got painted a chalky white and the base of the lamp painted the same gray as the color on my walls.
Once the paint was dry, I sanded the edges of the lamp to give it a worn, distressed look. You can now see the black paint showing through! (And a little bit of the old burgundy red!)
The best thing about projects like this is you can do a sloppy, uneven paint job and it still looks gorgeous! You want it to look distressed and aged!
I love me some old, chippy paint!
The square base of the lamp looked so plain and boring on its own, so I added a French typography graphic I found from The Graphics Fairy. I thought this Paris address looked perfect with the French country look of the lamp!
I first tried a transfer method I found on a blog using Elmer’s glue and Mod Podge, but it didn’t work at all. Not one bit of the graphic was transferred! And being the impatient DIY’er I am, I switched gears and used the old-fashioned method: I printed the image on regular computer paper, placed the paper on my wood lamp base, and used a ball-point pen to trace over the image. Then I used a super fine tip black Sharpie to trace over the impression left on the wood from the pen. I wanted the graphic to look distressed as well, so I gently sanded over the letters and until it looked aged but still readable.
The last step of the makeover was replacing the old, dirty lamp shade with a new white one from Target. Now my ugly rooster lamp is beautiful!
Ok, at the end of the day it is still a rooster lamp. But I’d say it’s a pretty chic rooster lamp! It means a lot to my husband because it was made by his uncle, and now it can finally fit in with the look of our home instead of being shoved in a closet. Compromise… it’s what keeps a marriage together : )
What would you love to secretly get rid of in YOUR home? I promise I won’t tell!
WOW, you did a super job on making that ‘rooster lamp’ a work of art. I think your sweety and his uncle will be proud!
Ohhh I love this lamp!!!! It looks beautiful, love the writing on it too! Great piece!
I love this! Too cute 😉 And the french wording is perfect. I’m a new follower 😉
That is an amazing transformation! It looks gorgeous now!
This is awesome! One of the most classy roosters I have ever seen 🙂
I gotta admit, when I saw the red rooster I was skeptical! It’s precious!
Way to take something ugly and make it great! I would love for you to come link up at my weekly linky party Thrifty to Nifty Thursdays at A Jennuine Life. I’m working with a couple of bigger bloggers to feature great projects, so I’m hoping to bring fabulous exposure for participants! http://ajennuinelife.blogspot.com/2013/01/thrifty-to-nifty-thursdays-2.html
Such a great job you did! It looks like you could have bought it at Homegoods!
What a gorgeous transformation! Love the colors you chose – but that graphic is just sheer perfection 🙂
Hugs,
Suzan
Incredible! The lamp looks perfectly delightful now 🙂
The graphic really pulls it all together – great transformation! Wish my wanna get rid of it piece was that small — it’s a hideous Eastlake style parlor organ my husband brought along. He finally told me last fall I could list it on craigslist — nobody liked it there either – lol! Thanks so much for linking on Busy Monday!
I love this little lamp! You did such an amazing job updating it so it would fit into your decor! I really like the french address, too. It gives it a little pop of personality!
Allison
I want it LIZ!!! Gosh is the lamp ever AMAZING!!!! LOVE IT!
Thanks so much for sharing this at The DIY Dreamer… From Dream To Reality!
I love roosters! I love that your husband’s uncle hand-carved his nephew a rooster lamp and that your husband would not let you get rid of it. Your makeover of the lamp is gorgeous, from top to bottom!