Inspired Design Challenge Week 3: West Elm

Welcome back for another exciting edition of the Inspired Design Challenge with this week’s inspiration…….wait for it….West Elm!  Oh how I swoon over West Elm!  When I walk into that store, which thankfully is very rare since the closest store to us is in Boston which is over 5 hours away, I can’t help but want to come with everything.  So coming up with project inspiration from this store was a piece of cake.  So let me introduce you to my inspiration, these gorgeous task lamps:

You can find those task lamps on the West Elm for $79 each.  I needed a pair of task lamps for my Etsy work space and would have loved those lamps (the yellow one was calling my name) but alas, they were too tall to fit underneath our slanty ceiling.  So instead, I came home with a pair of shorty $12 task lamps from Target.

Which fit nice and snug like underneath the slanted ceiling.

And gave them a paint job…a la West Elm like:

This has been one of the quickest and easiest projects we’ve tackled in awhile.  No joke, the hardest part was deciding on a paint color.  I whittled it down to two shades…a light yellow color and a lime green color, both of which looked fine with the curtain fabric I had picked up a month or so ago from Jo-Ann’s (but have still yet to sew the curtains).

And both colors looked fine with the beam color (which I still have yet to decide if I’m keeping stained or painting over with glossy white paint….have you noticed a pattern of indecision yet?!).

I kept going back and forth between the two hues.  Both colors went well with the other items in the room (curtain fabric, green bookcase, wood trim/beams) and I liked both colors.  I REALLY wanted to paint the lamps green but I kept telling myself that it would be too much green in the room.  But I couldn’t help it.  I loved that limey green color like a puppy (well…maybe a good, doesn’t chew your shoes or pee on the carpet puppy) and went for it.

The spray painting part was a cinch…I just taped up the lamps, covering all the chrome like parts:

Applied a liquid deglosser so the spray paint would adhere to the shiny, black surface.  And then tucked the power cords in a plastic baggie to protect them from errant paint spray.

It took four super thin and even coats, waiting about 30 minutes between each coat, and the lamps were painted.

I tend to remove masking tape from painting projects almost immediately after I finish spraying.  This helps the tape remove cleanly and without leaving crazy jagged edges and peeling the paint off.  I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty sure that’s my new favorite paint color ever.

And my fear of having too much green in the space was alleviated when I pseudo hung the curtains in the room.  They’re not sewn, they’re just clipped onto the curtain rod.  In fact, if you squint real hard you’ll see the bottoms of the curtains pooling on the ground.  But our curtain shenanigans are another post for another day.  There were also coral options involved for awhile and another bout of indecision.

So now is the time I turn it over to the other four leading ladies in this Inspired Design Challenge.

They never cease to astound.  Seriously…did you see Kristin’s birdcage in the Urban Outfitters round?  Or Sara’s word art over a mirror?  And Jennifer and her adorable word art for her son’s room?  Or Lindsay’s bohemian rug slip covered ottoman?  They’re all “can’t miss” projects for sure!  In fact, I’m now feeling inspired to slip cover our storage ottoman…hmmm.

Pssst…Random side note coming, due to some crazy Etsy shop traffic and associated orders which has us making iPad stands 24-7 (seriously…I don’t sleep), I’m cutting back the blogging to every other day for awhile during catch up time.  But once we do catch up we’ll be back to our 5x per week, Sunday through Thursday evening blogging schedule.  Just keeping it real with you all.  But enough about us…how you doin’?!

10 Comments

  1. Love task lighting! And I love the color. It really brightens up your work space 🙂

  2. I did a little gasp when I saw the after photo! I love the color you chose. I need to get on spray painting our yellowed Ikea desk lamp (that I still have from college). And I’m glad to hear your Etsy shop is doing so well—-that’s great news!

    1. You’re too cute! But I know the feeling…color does that to me too! I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but you’re so lucky you still have your college desk light! I was kicking myself for getting rid of mine a couple years ago and then going out to Target this week to pick up a pair just to spray paint! Doh! Can’t wait to see your lamp makeover!

    1. Eeee…thanks so much Elisa! I never thought I would choose lime in a million years but I’m digging it!

  3. I love the color you added to your workspace! I should buy stock in Valspar spray paint. I literally have an entire shelf of it hanging around here!

    1. Tell me about it! And you never use a whole can for anything so there’s always so much leftover paint!

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