Thrifty Lamps for the Library...

Today, my mother and I attended an event at Isabella's primary school. We were her "special guests" as her grandmother and great grandmother. She performed her speaking part beautifully and it was so much fun to hear them sing songs with the same melodies my mother and I remembered so well. Only the lyrics have changed. The teacher reminded us that educators have known for a long time that singing and learning go hand in hand. Remember how you learned your abc's, you sang the song, of course!

We decided after the school visit to do a little thrift shopping at the Good Will in my Mom's little town. She has been telling me about the great bargains she has found there, but this was my first visit. Well, what a good idea that turned out to be. My daughter Lauren is moving into a new "old" home, an early Arts and Crafts (1890), over 4000 square feet. Needless to say, she will need a lot more furniture and lamps. We have designed the function of each room on paper and have determined what she will need in them. It was helpful to draw it out to scale, so that we could place room features and furniture pieces in it. Believe or not, we used Google Docs and worked together on our computers to draw out the entire downstairs rooms. She lives a little over two hours away and we working on the same document! Ain't technology grand.

Okay, so here are the lamps we found for the "library".  A room with built ins and beautiful large, stained glass windows. She will put a large old library table, preferably with drawers in the center of the room and add benches on either side for homework and projects. There will be more bookcases and the corners will have comfy chairs, small tables and "lamps". This room has lots of mahogany trim and will need ample light. Check out these babies in their "before" state. The cost $6.99, $7.99 and $7.99. They are very heavy solid brass and the large multiple socket one has two switches in case less light is needed.

I will be spraying the brass parts with "oil rubbed bronze" in keeping with the Arts and Crafts era. The candlesticks will be freshened up and the wooden base lamp will be done in a fun color. The best part will be finding the perfect lampshades. I will share the "afters" when I am finished. Lauren still needs many more lamps, but this is such a great start. What do you think of this bargain? My mom purchased them for her and she totally could envision them...gotta love Mom! I am linking here: