I am so excited about my upcycled lamp to toilet paper holder! As you know here in Germany storage in the bathrooms is scarce and in the case of the kids bathroom there wasn’t even a toilet paper holder. Of course the BX didn’t have any either…go figure. So I decided to make my own! All I needed was an old lamp, some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP), and wax. This was a super easy and quick project.
I scored the lamp for $1 at the thrift store, I bought it because I needed a part off it for another lamp, then I had the whole ‘lightbulb’ moment for this project. I had heard that ASCP will stick to pretty much anything, even without primer, so I had to give it a try for this project. I took the lamp apart and took out all the cords, that was the hardest part, and put it back together. Then I wiped it down to make sure there was no dirt or dust on it.
I gave it a coat of Provence and let it dry, then I went back and gave it a second coat. The paint went on easily and stuck to the lamp base without any problems.
Here it is painted with two coats but not yet waxed.
A few of my crafty friend here have been asking questions about the ASCP, since I’m a new user I’ve been picking my friend’s brain since she’s used it a good bit and doing lots of research. I painted a board with the Provence and waxed one side so you can see the difference between it waxed & unwaxed. Unwaxed you can write on it with chalk if you want, but after it’s waxed you cannot. You really need to wax the piece to seal it and prevent it from flaking, you can read more about there here if you so desire 😉
The wax is like crisco and the lamp only required a small amount, I’ve read first time users often over wax so I made sure I didn’t do that.
After it was fully dried I applied clear wax to finish and seal the ASCP, I love how the wax makes the color pop and I’m really loving the Provence.
After I was done I popped a roll of toilet paper on it and threw it in the kids bathroom! It’s just the right height for a toilet paper holder. And another neat thing about Germany is that you’ll find all kinds of toilet paper holders and places where people put it when you visit different homes, so I didn’t batt an eye at using an old lamp base. Sure Mr. B & the kids thought I was a bit nuts, but hey that’s all part of the fun 😉
You need to meet my other daughter in Nashville. She has her own little craft shop behind their home. She’s also an amateur photographer. The M. boys are growing up. Can you believe Z. is now 6’2″ and he’s still just 14? They are all in baseball so mom and dad are busy. Love reading your blog.
Absolutely, positively LOVE THIS! Because, yes!!! We searched high and low for a stupid toilet paper holder for our house in Italy! The BX was always out of them (obviously) and the ones on amazon were stupid expensive. This would’ve been perfect! Great, great thinking!
I got tired of searching and I’m too cheap to sell out lots of $ for something that I didn’t want to buy, LOL! I was searching Pinterest for alternatives ideas so I had some thoughts mulling about and then I seen this lamp and BAM we had a project! ;p