How I Made A Bedside Table Lamp Filled With Shells For My Playscale Dollhouse

November 15, 2013 | By fitzcharming | Reply More

Lately I've been obsessed with doll lamps. I can't remember exactly how it started but I know I was looking for a lamp for the beach cottage. I couldn't find one already made that I liked. I think I was prowling Etsy and found a couple that looked nice and started to think I could make my own version. Well the shade was what was tricking me up. I just couldn't think how to do it. Pretty soon I began seeing little lampshades everywhere. In the supermarket the mouthwash caps turned into lampshades, at the craft store ribbon spools became the core of a lampshade, and on and on.

Eventually I wound up in the Dollar Store. After wandering around for a while I finally got some inspiration. I bought a little air freshener refill and some clear shot glasses and came home to begin making my masterpiece. Here are my supplies.

Additionally I used some silver craft paint but forgot to put that in the picture. The shot glasses came in a pack of 24 for a buck and the air freshener was a dollar too. I had the paint, shells, and pin. Of course this is not a working lamp, that's beyond my limited crafting skills.

So first I dumped the liquid out of the air freshener container and washed it really good. I also washed the wick and cap. After it dried I put some teeny shells inside. I had these shells from a beach I visited in Mexico, but you can find them in craft stores or online. Next I stuffed the wick back inside the lamp and painted the top silver. I also cut the very tip off the cap so it would be flat. That also exposed the wick so the pin that I would be sticking in the top would have something to hold it in place. I poked a hole in the top of the "shade" to put the pin through. This was tricky. I actually broke a few of the cups because the plastic is so brittle. If you look carefully the painted one in my photos is cracked too.

I made another one after I took these pictures so the final shade looks perfect. In retrospect I think I would have used something else. Probably the little individual coffee packs that go into a Keurig single cup coffee maker would be good. They are the same size and the plastic is more pliable. I would take an unused cup and dump the coffee out, then paint it.

The above picture shows the final pieces before assembly. After the cap and shot glass shade are painted. The only thing left to do is to cram the wick down into the shells, put the shade on and stick the pin in the top to hold it in place. I think you could also put a little bit of glue under the top of the lampshade too but I skipped that step and it worked okay.

Here is my finished product (except it still has the cracked shade). There is a new one now. You get the idea anyway. It was easy and it is the perfect size for the nightstand in the upstairs bedroom. And the shell base reinforces the beach theme inside the cottage. I'm happy with the results.