From Lampshade to Topiary

Well hello again. Ready for episode 2 in my series of what to do with an old thrifted lamp?

Right. Let’s get this going again.

 

 

I have added a bit of green to my life. Nice real, growing greens in the form of a topiary. 

Remember what I started with?

 

 

An old thrifted lamp that looked as if it was ready for the bin. 

The wooden lamp stand has already been converted to a nice candle stick. Which left me of course with the lampshade.

I got rid of the fabric. There was no way I could reuse that (and I tried to come up with something, but it was just too horrific). But the actual frame of the lampshade was quite nice.

 

 

Nice curves and all. I played and toyed with it a bit until I came up with the idea of using it for a quick and easy topiary.

First order of business, get out the heavy duty pliers. and start taking this baby apart.

 

 

 I ended up with three parts. and for the topiary I only need the top part.

 

 

With some strong metal wire I tied the loose ends together in a circle. I left over two longer ends on each side. 

I used those to stick the wire cage into the soil, for extra stability. The wire was also used to form a smaller circle from the ‘legs’ that was about the diameter of my container. Be careful when you pull the circle in like this, because you don’t want the ‘legs’ of the frame to break off.

After that it was just planting a little plant in the pot and threading her branches around the frame.

 

 

When you look closely at the picture above you can see the wire sticking out a bit at the bottom. You can also see new leaves and branches growing, so I am sure it will be only a small matter of time and the wire will be completely covered.

 

The pot I choose is from Ikea. It is a rather narrow high one. I choose it because I wanted the pot that formed the base to be slightly taller than the topiary. Matching up the size of the topiary with the base pot made all the difference in the final outcome (I tried several options and I liked this one best). 

Now that I am looking at that image I realize I could have taken a moment and wipe away some of the specks on the outside. Didn’t see them in real life, but they are glaring at my now. Ah well, that is real life, nothing is perfect and blemishes happen. 

 

 

I constructed this about three weeks ago. I wanted to make sure the plant would actually survive my treatment of it, before I posted it here. As you can see it is thriving and lots of new tiny leaves are sprouting up. Every once in a while, as I am watering it, I will weave the new branches into the topiary, so I expect it to fill out quite nicely over time. 

The plant I used is a Muehlenbeckia or angel vine. It would work well with a kind of ivy too. 

 

 

A little green on my window sill. I think it is fitting  for Spring, as the world outside is slowly turning green again too.

 

 

Turn an old lampshade into a topiary. This was definitely a cheap, quick and easy project.

And I love having a bit of real, life greenery in my home again. 

So that is 2 out of 5 can you guess which part of the lamp I am going to use next?