DIY Sparkly Sequin Lampshade
This sequin lamp shade project was inspired by a lamp I saw for sale somewhere. Something similar to THIS, actually. I thought it was so pretty, but I had a slightly different vision for one I could make. And then I found some sequins that changed my vision to what you see here.
This is one of those projects that isn’t difficult; it’s just time-consuming. Honestly, though, it didn’t take me as long as I thought it would. It’s Christmas in July on Hallmark Channel, so I worked on this while I watched movies. It’s a perfect TV-watching activity.
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My original plan was to buy a bunch of flat translucent sequins. Cartwright’s Sequins is my favorite place to buy them from. (The sequins for my ruby slippers and sneakers came from there!) They have a TON of colors. I thought the light shining through the sequins would be really pretty. The only issue I had was narrowing down my color choices. Seriously, SO many colors.
But then I came across these sequins on Amazon sort of by accident, and I had a new vision. It didn’t hurt that the bag of sequins (more than I needed) cost only $6!
I wanted a cylindrical lamp shade for this project, and I ended up finding this lamp on sale for under $11! Originally I envisioned a slightly bigger lampshade, but having glued all of the sequins on, I do not regret buying the smaller lamp. This particular lamp comes in a bunch of different color lamp/shade combos. The flax-black color is what I ended up with (because it was cheapest), and it is perfect. You really can’t see much of the shade at all, so I don’t know how much the color matters.
I already had the glue, so this project cost me less than $17.
The supply list is really that simple.
If you’ve read my post about the rhinestone shoes I made for my daughter, you know I was not completely sold on Gem-Tac for that particular project. For this project, however, it was perfect. The sequins feel secure to me. It has the ease of use of Tacky glue, and I wasn’t worried about breathing in the fumes from E6000. I suspect Tacky glue would work fine for this project.
To glue on the sequins, I first made a short line of glue along the top of the lampshade. I pressed each sequin into the glue and as close to each other as possible without overlapping. Starting out, I didn’t follow a particular pattern. I didn’t want the same colors to touch each other, but there are enough colors in this pack that it was easy to do. After a while, it was just easier to follow somewhat of a pattern, but I didn’t stick to it too closely. I also started working with glue lines more like 4-5 inches long.
In the beginning, I worked in complete circles around the shade. I was very pleased to find out that lined up perfectly to complete a full ring without any gaps. The further down I got, the harder it was to keep the sequins on the back from shifting as I worked on the opposite side. My solution was to start working in sections. I’d work in a section that was maybe 5-6 inches wide, and then I’d let it dry before moving onto the next section. That worked well for me.
There was only one downside to that strategy. When you go around in a complete circle, by the time you’ve gone all the way around, the glue has pretty well dried under those first sequins. When you start the next row, nothing moves. On the other hand, when you work in sections, it’s easier to accidentally move sequins in the previous row out of place as you place the new ones. This wasn’t too much of an issue, but it was something I had to be mindful of.
The fun thing about a project like this is that you can clearly see your progress. I got more and more excited the closer I got to being done. I LOVE how it turned out!
This lamp is pretty cool. It comes with a bulb, and there are three different shades of white light, so plenty of options to best show off the sequin sparkle. (It also has an AC outlet, so it would make a great bedside lamp.) If you want a matching set, you can find that HERE!
If you make your own sequin lamp, I’d love to see! You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.
Happy crafting!
