Mock Off Monday- #1

Nothing tickles my fancy more than {successfully} reproducing something for a fraction of the cost.

I love {Anthropologie}. It is a DIY'ers visual playground. I always leave inspired; with a mental list of future projects a mile long. But I would never, ever purchase anything from there. It isn't that I don't love their stuff, cause I do. I really, really love their stuff. It's just that I'd have to sell my organs on the black market to fund that kind of an investment.

So, if I can't have the real deal, I guess I'll have to settle for the next best thing...a really good knock off.

I've been wanting to replicate these babies for awhile now.
Anthro's Secret Silhouette Shade.

These lovelies retail for $128...that'sjust the shade, no lamp base. See what I said about selling one's organs?

I loved this project because it was relatively easy. And even better, it only required two supplies...a lamp shade and a paint pen {$3.99 at Joanne's}.

I found my shade at Target for $15. Normally I would try to cut cost by grabbing a random shade from thrift store and recovering it. But today I was feeling lazy so I just bought one instead. Besides drum shades are rarely available at my thrift store and I really wanted a drum shade.

The one I bought is burlap. I really liked the color and texture, but you could also use a cotton/linen shade. Because the weave on the burlap is so loose, it's difficult to draw fine details with the paint pen, which means that when the lamp is turned on the frame slightly fades and becomes harder to make out. That said, burlap is pretty forgiving. Mistakes are less noticeable. Linen on the other hand, will show every mark the paint pen makes because it has a tighter weave. This is both good and a bad. It's good, because when the lamp is lit, the image of the frame will not loose any contrast . But that also means that any little mistake is more visible.

align="center">It's totally up to you which kind of shade to use, should you decide to try this. But I think next time I will try linen, just to see which I like better.

To begin, I traced out a template of the frame using Anthro's version as my reference.

There isn't any way to transfer the image to the shade but to just freehand it.

I traced a circle onto a piece of paper using a cup. Then I cut the circle out and traced around it on the shade.

I just freehanded the inner circle once I had the larger circle drawn.

I filled the circles in with some squiggles.

Then I used a ruler to make the square part of the frame. I just kept layering on the details til it was done.



For the silhouette, I just found an image online that I liked and traced it.


Then I cut it out.


I centered it in the frame {you can do this by holding the frame up to light. You should be able to see the image of the fram well enough to center the silhouette.}

then traced around it with the paint pen.



Then filled it in.

Finally, I placed the shade on a lamp.

Then I turned it on and prayed that it would work.

Phew!

Here's a closer look at the shade.

And here are side by sides of the origional and my knock off.

Anthro's version.

My version.

Whadaya think? Not too shabby for an amateur right.

And a way better deal. I saved myself a whopping $110+.