Vintage slide lampshade

It’s time for another of my very favorite projects – a repurposed project!

A few weeks ago, I was driving along on a beautiful fall afternoon when I spied an estate sale sign.  I was actually without my toddler sidekick for once and couldn’t resist the chance to browse a sale without trying to wrangle a tiny person intent on breaking every thing in sight.  I only ended up buying one thing but I had the best time leisurely looking at every little thing.  (Something I very much took for granted before I was a mom!)

The one thing I bought was a plastic case full of hundreds of old photo slides.  It made me so sad thinking of someone’s precious memories sitting on the shelf unwanted and the whole box was only $2 so I went for it.  I knew there had to be something I could do with them.

That night I looked through them all to see what I had.  There were actually very few family photos (which made me feel better).  Instead, they were almost all photos of landscaping and flowers.

After a little hunt for inspiration on Pinterest, I knew my slides were destined to become a one of a kind lampshade.

vintage slide lampshade 2

This post contains some affiliate links.  See my full disclosure here.

If you weren’t lucky enough to stumble upon your own stash of slides, you can buy them pretty cheaply on Etsy.

The process was super simple – just tedious.  I connected all of my slides using jump rings (like you use for jewelry making).

connecting the slides for lampshade

To do this, I started by making two holes in each corner.  I tried several different methods for this but found the easiest way to be simply hammering a nail into each corner to leave a small hole.  After I made the holes in the first slide, I used it as a template for all the others.

Once all the holes were made, I connected the slides at each corner as shown above.

When the slides were all woven together, it was time to turn them into a lampshade.  To keep things inexpensive I made the top of my lampshade using an embroidery hoop and some wire

makeshift lampshade

I used a little wood glue to attach the top layer of slides to the embroidery hoop.  Then I simply rested the crossed wires on top of my lamp harp.

vintage slide lampshade unlit

When the lampshade was finished, I thought it looked kind of cool.

But when I turned on the lamp, it became magical. 

All of those beautiful flower slides came to life with the light shining through!

vintage slide lampshade 4

vintage slide lampshade 3

Magical!

And I can’t help thinking how much more amazing this would be if these were old photos of my own family.  That would be a true treasure – although my flower version is pretty beautiful too.

And now you have got to check out my fellow repurposers’ projects – amazing as always!

 

repurpose nov

Upcycled Kitchen Pendant by Bigger than the Three of Us

Upcycled Photo Display by Life as a Thrifter

Fall Frame Wreath by Thrifty and Chic

Wine Bottle Cover by All Things G & D

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22 Comments

  1. I love this idea! Can you describe how you attached the shade to the lamp? I like the embroidery hoop idea, but I want to make sure I understand how the shade actually attaches to or rests on the lamp before I embark on this project.

    1. Erica, The lamp I used has a harp that sticks up for the lampshade to rest on. I just wrapped some wire around the embroidery hoop so that it formed an x and rested it on top of the harp. It does look a bit diy when viewed from above, but I don’t mind that. An alternative would be to buy an old lampshade from a thrift store and tear off the paper to just leave the metal ring that attached to the lamp and attach the slides to that.

  2. That’s such an amazing idea Carrie. My mom just gave me a whole box of old slides and this is absolutely perfect. Love, love, love how it looks with the light on.

    1. Thanks Michelle! It really is such a great way to repurpose old slides and with the light on it is beautiful!

  3. Thank you for sharing such an awesome idea and your instructions, this is a project I really want to try with old family slides! #UPCYCLESHARIN50K

    1. That’s a great question. We only used our lamp sporadically and it held up great. If you are planning to use it daily, the light would likely begin to degrade the slides, but I’m not sure how quickly.

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