diy lamp shade christmas tree

I LOVE a good craft that gives an ordinary item a totally new purpose!! You are never going to believe what I created with a common household item that everyone has…lampshades! Now, we all know that you can decorate lampshades with ribbons, buttons and other embellishments, but today, we’re going to take old, outdated lampshades and design a CHRISTMAS TREE!

This was one of those projects where I didn’t quite know which direction I was going to take, but I think in the end, it turned out to be the perfect combination of whimsical and fun!

Let’s get started!

I started with three lampshades of different sizes. You could definitely have more depending on how tall you want your tree, but I liked the height of three. The lampshades can literally be in ANY condition. They can be cracked or discolored…it really doesn’t matter, because you will be painting them. All three of my shades have the “spider” assembly, where they attach to a harp with the finial.

You will also need several different shades of green acrylic paint. I love the Apple Barrel brand, because they are inexpensive and come in a variety of colors. You may want to grab two small bottles of the darker green for your base color. Fabric absorbs a lot of paint, so it may take a little more for the base layer.

Here is a complete run down of supplies needed:
Three lampshades
Several shades of green acrylic paint (2 bottles of the darker base green, 1 bottle of the other
shades)
Paint brush – I used a wide chip brush from the Dollar Tree
Scrap Fabrics
Scissors
String or twine for the garland
Santa hat

The first step is to paint each lampshade with your darkest color green. I did not paint it until it was opaque. You could definitely still see the shade’s original color peeking through. Since my shades were ivory, it was not important to completely cover the original color. However, if your lampshade is another color, it would be a good idea to paint a white primer base before
painting it green.

Once the base green color was on, I then started to lightly brush on the other shades of green. I started with the darkest shade and finished with the lightest. I just painted broad strokes lightly to add some dimension.

After the shades were dry, I stacked them to create my tree. If your shades do not stack well, and you need some additional space between the shades, simply roll up a towel and place it on top of the metal piece on the shade below it.

I placed the Santa hat on the very top shade as my tree topper. Now, it was time to decorate it! This is where you can be creative and add anything you like!

I started by wrapping it with a pre-made pom pom garland that I purchased from Belk several years ago. You can find simple pom pom garlands at many stores.

It still wanted a little more color and pizazz, so I decided to use some scrap fabric to create a rag garland. To create the rag garland, I cut strips of fabric that were about 1”-2” wide and 7”-9” long. I love to vary the width and lengths of the strips so it doesn’t look so uniform. The number of strips you need will depend on how long you want the garland to be. I used about 10 strips per foot of garland. You could also use a variety of ribbons instead of fabric.

All you need to do is tie the fabric around the string. I did not double knot mine, but you certainly can. The knots do not have to touch. I put a little space between each fabric strip when tying them onto the string. The closer you place them together, the fuller your garland will be.

This is definitely a step your kids could help with if they like crafting!

When I was finished, I taped one of the ends of the garland inside the top of the lampshade underneath the Santa hat. I wrapped it around the tree and secured it at the bottom.

Look how adorable this lampshade tree turned out!!! It was so inexpensive and super fun to create!

Another great thing about this décor is the shades will nest within each other to store until next
Christmas!

I hope you have enjoyed this unique craft! I bet you will never look at lampshades the same
way again!

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Last Updated on December 19, 2022