How to Make an Umbrella Lamp

Home decorating stores such as Ikea and Pier One Imports stock good, basic housewares, but they're often not the most attractive items for your home. If you have a round paper hanging lamp, you can turn it into an amusing colorful conversation piece with little more than some packages of cocktail umbrellas. Whether you need a conversation piece for a finished bar area or an unusual lamp for a teen's bedroom, a paper umbrella lamp is a simple and effective craft project that will fit the bill.

Round paper hanging lamp
Paper cocktail umbrellas
Scissors
Tiny rubber bands

Instructions

- 1
  Open up a dozen cocktail umbrellas to start. The number of umbrellas you will need depends on the size of the lamp. Continue preparing umbrellas while decorating this lamp.
- 2
  Cut off the bottom half of the umbrellas' sticks with a sharp pair of scissors.
- 3
  Remove the light bulb and socket from the top opening in the lamp. This will leave a large opening that allows your hand to fit inside.
- 4
  Push the umbrella stick through the paper on the lamp. Twist a tiny rubber band around the stick inside the lamp until it's tight to the wood. Roll the rubber band up the stick until it's right up against the inside of the lamp. This will hold the umbrella in place.
- 5
  Push another umbrella stick through the paper, close enough to the first one that the umbrella edges will overlap. Secure the second umbrella with a tiny rubber band. Continue adding umbrellas, overlapping the edges, until the entire outside of the lamp is covered.
- 6
  Replace the socket and bulb, hang the lamp and plug it in.

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