DIY Old World Lamp
This project was so fun and so easy! So if you don’t want to spend sometimes hundreds of dollars on a concrete or pottery style lamp, here is a simple way to create your own with maybe an old lamp you have laying around or solid thrift find.
How to make a DIY Concrete Lamp
Here is the step by step process that we used to turn this old lamp into a Tulum style, concrete lamp. It is so easy! You don’t need any special skills just be bold and stretch those creative juices. There are several different approaches to creating this style of lamp and we are planning on tying out and sharing some of those techniques. We were so happy with the way this first attempt came out! Hope you enjoy it!
Materials:
Lamp base and shade. Any lamp would work just find one with a nice round pot style shape
A spray paint primer or a high enamel spray paint base
Paint (any kind of paint will work just decide what color and finish you want)
There is no shame in finding some good inspiration pieces. Here are a few of the lamps that we saw that helped get our creative juices going.
This approach will get you the look of these high end, high priced lamps for a fraction of the cost and you get the added bonus of a fun project as well. Perfect project to include children as well cause there is really no way to mess it up. So lets jump right in!
Step One: Choose your lamp
Try to find an inexpensive lamp that has the shape that you are looking for. We found ours at a thrift store and we were able to score them on the half price day so we walked out spending $14 for both lamps! But you can find plenty of great options on Facebook Marketplace or even a good yard sale.
It really doesn’t matter what the texture of the lamp is just as long as the shape matches the style that you are shooting for. We really love the golf ball dimple pattern on this lamp and we were hoping to keep some of that through the new texture.
Step 2: Prime/paint the Lamp
Before you can put the stucco mix on the lamp you need to prepare the surface. First start by masking off anything that you don’t want paint to get on like the shade holders and the cord. Then using a primer or high enamel spray paint cover the entire lamp with 2-3 coats. This is by far my FAVORITE spray paint! It goes on any surface and it is a very strong paint. It also has an amazing nozzle that allows for great coverage. Goes on easy and drys fast. What else can you ask for?!
Step 3: apply the stucco mix
Get those gloves and go for it!
We applied a thin layer of the stucco mix over the entire lamp. We found that it worked really well to use multiple thin layers of the stucco mix in order to cover the entire surface of the lamp. Just make sure that the stucco mix drys complete between each coat. Don’t worry if the plain stucco dusts off a little bit once it drys. This is perfectly normal and the next steps will help seal it all together.
Step 4: Paint stucco mix
Next we added a few more layers of the stucco mix but we added paint to the mixture. This gave added dimension of colors to the surface while still maintaining that concrete style texture and finish. We used both and gray and a white paint color. The mixture was ruffly a 50/50 blend of the paint and stucco.
Feel free to use the 220 grit sand paper to keep the texture under control as you go through each layer. This is where it really becomes what you want it to be. Lastly we added some little section of white paint to finish the look that we were going for.
At this point you can keep going back to sanding and adding paint or stucco as you see fit for your project. We felt like finishing with paint gave it the best final result and helped to seal the outside of the stucco and lock in that concrete look. All and all this project cost was under $70 for both lamps! Here is our finished product!
