Old Lamp. New Life.

One of my Saturday favorites is to hit up some local thrift stores for unusual finds and inspiration.  Unfortunately it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like, but a few weeks ago when the kiddos were with the grandparents, the Mister and I hit up one of my go-to places.

We scored a couple of cute things, like a brass owl bell (which my kids love to ring) + a new chair (which will soon get a spray paint makeover)…

…as well as this brass wall sconce for $15.  It was something that I’ve been searching for, but others I almost bought (new and old) were much more expensive.  I was thrilled to find this treasure and I knew the perfect place for it!

The blue room (a.k.a. my home office / family room) has been complete for over a year, but I’m always ‘changing things up’ and switching out the layers of pillows + accessories.  One element that I was on the search for since finishing the space was a wall sconce to attach to the side of the painted bookcases.

My new found treasure worked out perfectly…

Here’s how I gave this old lamp new life…

The back of the lamp had no “guts”, which worked fine for me because I took a piece of scrap wood and cut it to fit snug inside the round plate.

Once I knew the fit was just right, I took the piece of wood out of the lamp.  I determined where I wanted the lamp to sit on the bookcase, and then attached the piece of wood to the side of the bookcase with wood screws.

Once the wood was secure, I stuck the lamp base onto the wood.  The round base fit so snug that there was no additional screws needed.  The base simply is held in place by tension…

And voila, it was complete (almost)…

After giving the brass a good shining + adding a new lampshade (the old one was garbage bound), this was the result…

And how the room looks now with this new found treasure…

And the best part, it works…

From start to finish, the lamp literally took minutes to install + there was no electrical needed.  The cord was attached to this thrift store find and all I had to do was plug it in.  And a little tid-bit ~ to keep the cord taught on the bookcase, I used a piece of duct tape to keep it in place.

I’m simply smitten over my new trash to treasure!

It’s amazing what a little outside-of-the-box thinking can do.  I’m thrilled that I waited it out to find just the right piece and in the end, it only cost $15!

What have been your favorite trash to treasure finds either from a garage sale, thrift store, or on the side of the road?