Paint Sticks & "fill in the blank"

What to do with a box of paint sticks? Like fine wine, they pair nicely with other items to create a visually appealing palate of creative, yet functional, items.

Paint Sticks & embroidery hoops + lamp shade

For awhile now I have wanted to redo these trashed-jug-bedside-lamps, the Mod Podge paper map & book sheets just isn't doing it for me. I think its the dynamics of our room, which is pretty eclectic and super messy. Between the piles of laundry, dusty stacks of books, and random kids pictures taped to the wall, the mismatched paper shades added to the messy look.


In addition to decluttering, its time to add pieces with more substance. (That makes total sense in my head but may not translate well to others.)

So what does a lamp shade with substance look like? From my mind to your eyes: like this.

Inspiration found here, but I am partial to my free version. ~wink, wink~

The first attempt was a fail. Following this tutorial on Hometalk, I, too, found that a drum lampshade would be MUCH easier to work with. Trying to work with the cone shape, the highlighted section shows where I tried to overlap the sticks on the top...ehhhhhhh, still too "gappy" near the bottom. 

Pulling everything apart and starting over, the paint sticks were overlapped with the embroidery hoops in-between the two layers. WIN!                                                                                                                                                     And did I mention that I spray painted the logo-sides of the paint sticks a lovely off white color? Helps bounce some light around and plenty does get through. 

Paint Sticks & Lattice

Have you seen these beautiful stripped stars by Scavenger Chic or The Sophisticated Hillbilly? Totally inspiring for a star aficionado. 

The most "pain staking" part of this project was sanding off the Home Depot logo. They were stained with homemade stain...so maybe sanding was an unnecessary step, but I didn't want to take any chances on the logo peeking thru.

Measuring out the paint sticks was easy...getting the lattice pieces to line up was a bit trickier. Not as clean-cut of a look as the above bloggers' versions, but still totally adorable. 

I'm crushing on my own craft. It just might be my personal favorite for the year.

Still have some paint sticks left over...What to do? What to do?