Ah IKEA, the land of recent college graduates and families with rambunctious children. Almost everyone I know has purchased something from IKEA at one time or another. Whether it’s the classic EXPEDIT shelving or the cheap sheepskin rugs, the purchases can be loved for years to come… or immediately regretted. I have a mixture of the two in my apartment. Time for an IKEA Hack!

One purchase that has held up really well is my $9 HEMMA lamp base. In a recent effort to reduce the amount of dark furniture pieces in my apartment, I decided that I would like the lamps even better if they were gold. This seems to be a common occurrence.

Since the lamp bases are coated with a pigmented powder spray, I thought it might be difficult to paint them, but it turned out to be really simple. I also had a fear of spray painting in my apartment because I thought it might spray everywhere on to the walls and make a huge mess, but with the help of a lot of newspaper I am happy to say that my bathroom remains as it was. A warning, though, make sure to open up the windows afterwards though in order to get some fresh air flow!

Also, since I’ve had lots of questions about them on Instagram, the pillows were a DIY pillow case from a while back! The fabric is from Joann Crafts.

Follow my tutorial below to paint over a powder coated, HEMMA lamp base!

How to Paint the IKEA HEMMA Lamp

Supplies:

HEMMA Lamp Base
Metallic Gold Spray Paint
Paper Towels
Painters Tape
Newspaper

Time:

30 minutes

Difficulty:

Easy

1. Start off by cleaning the lamp base by detaching it from the lamp shade and bulb, and wiping it down with a wet paper towel. Then dry with a dry paper towel.

2. Once the lamp base is fully dry, tape the lamp around the bulb attachment and the cord attachment so that you do not paint these sections.

3. Lay out your newspaper on the ground and lie your lamp bases on their sides. Take your spray paint, shake vigorously, and slowly spray over the surface so that you paint the half of the lamp that is facing up. Go over the surface multiple times in order to fully cover the black color. Once one side has dried (just a few minutes), flip the lamp over and repeat on the other side.

Make sure to keep shaking the paint can in between sprays so that you do not get any spotty paint. The Design Master paint applies very smoothly as long as it has been shaken.

4. Once the lamp has completely dried, removed the tape, throw the lamp shade back on, and you are back in business!