I was walking by a tall apartment building in NYC and there it was, a discarded avocado colored wood lamp. Solid wood! I carried it home on the train and got busy on this make-over!

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First, I sanded down the surface to make it more receptive to paint. I dusted it off too.

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Then I choose a light neutral colored paint as my base, a cream. I love it, it already looks happier.

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Then I wanted to do something modern, on-trend but also folky so I choose some arrow stencils from the Stencil1 CAMP stencil set and another arrow in Stencil Style 101. I taped off areas to isolate the arrows. I then choose two colors, red and blue for my arrows.

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I did a stencil test of my arrows on a piece of scrap wood.

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I then stenciled arrows in various positions, all “shooting” upwards! I think it’s more positive in that direction! I used a very dry brush technique to give it a super handmade, folky look to it. Sort of modern folk, no? Anyway, I covered the entire lamp in hundreds of arrows and splurged and bought a new shade for this found treasure!

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And there it is, to brighten my day!