Vintage Slide Lampshade

Hello, It’s Carrie from Lovely Etc. back to share another fun project with you. When I’m out looking for treasures at estate sales, yard sales, and thrift stores, I often find beautiful lamps for a steal. Unfortunately, I almost never find great lampshades to go with them. Which leaves me with lots of naked lamps waiting for the perfect lampshade.

My absolute favorite DIY projects are upcycled projects that transform something tired and out-dated into something beautiful and useful again. This upcycled lampshade project began with a big box of vintage photo slides that I found at a yard sale for $2. I snapped it up, knowing those slides could become something beautiful.

Probably the most fun part of this entire project was spending an evening with my husband holding each slide up to the light to find out what was on them. My box of slides apparently belonged to a gardener because 90% of the photos were of landscaping and flowers. I pulled out all the prettiest, most colorful flower photos and got to work creating my upcycled lampshade.

Turning my collection of slides into a working lampshade was actually pretty easy and required very few supplies other than the slides themselves. It is pretty tedious connecting all of those tiny slides together though, so you may want to settle in with a good movie when you’re ready to work on this project!

I absolutely adore how the slides light up and show off their colors when the lamp is turned on. The light it gives off is absolutely beautiful. And while I love all the gorgeous flowers in my lampshade, I think this lampshade would look amazing using almost any slides. In particular, it would be an incredibly beautiful way to display your own old family photos if you are lucky enough to have some!

You can find the full tutorial to make your own vintage slide lampshade at Lovely Etc.