How to Rewire a Yard Sale Lamp.

Hiya guys and gals! I was planning a completely different post for today but things didn't work out quite as planned. (Hence a late post). Anyway here we are and today I wanted to show you how I turned two five dollar yard sale lamps into the perfect lighting for our living room.

Ever since I built the sofa table I have envisioned have two lamps for each end instead of the one in the middle. (The one lamp felt a little shrimpy to me and out of place.) The only issue was finding affordable lamps that Jose and I liked. I looked everywhere to no avail. Then one day while I was making Jose procrastinate about studying and go yard sale-ing (I know this is not a verb but its a fun word right?) with me we came across these beauties:

Well I know not exactly beautiful at first glance but I could see potential and for five dollars who could pass them up. The only reservation we both had was the fact that I am sure these were still wired from around 1960. Not exactly safe or giving me a fuzzy feeling about plugging them into our outlets. Luckily this was such an easy fix. We bought two replacement cords from Lowe's for $6 a piece and just switched them out with the old ones. Lowe's sells an entire rewiring kit but the sockets looked to be in good shape it was just the wires in these lamps.

The process of rewiring these lamps was incredibly easy. I just followed the instructions included with the cord. (And trust me if I can rewire something you can too. ) Here's a quick run down of the steps but like I said the kit includes great instructions:

Step 1: Remove the Socket from the lamp base

Step 2: Unscrew the two screws holding the old wires in place

Step 3: remove old cord from the lamp

Step 4: Feed new cord through the lamp

Step 5: Place wire ends behind screws and screw down

Step 6: Replace the socket

Step 7: Add your light bulb and lamp shade and you are good to go.

As for a lamp shade this was almost as difficult as finding the lamps themselves. I did not want to pay $20 a shade for the ones I found I liked. So I scoured thrift stores and finally on Wednesday I came across the perfect lamp shades (matching none the less) and they only set me back $10 for the both of them.  I am thinking of painting the shades or maybe recovering them with some awesome fabric. However I am going to live with them for a bit before making big changes. 

What do you guys think of the new lamps? Would you ever attempt rewiring of a lamp? I can't decide if I am going to leave these their greenish copper color or if they are going to get a good coat of spray paint. What do you think? To paint or not to paint? That is the question.

Today I will be linking up with: 

http://www.fivedaysfiveways.com/2013/06/feature-friday-free-for-all-71.html?

http://www.ajennuinelife.com/2013/06/thrifty-to-nifty-thursdays-22.html

http://www.trulylovelyblog.net/2013/06/fancy-this-fridays-132-and-features/

http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2013/06/20/thrifty-thursday-week-16/
http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2013/06/share-it-link-party-67.html