Boudoir Lamp Revamp

I've recently started to attend estate sales.  It's a little wacky...people wise, adrenaline inducing, and I feel a little odd pilfering other people's stuff.  However, I never expected to love the heart racing feeling as they open the doors and everyone tears in like they are on an episode of The Grocery Game.  My main interest is Mid Century Modern which is coincidentally most other people's as well...so game on.

Let's start by saying that I've never owned or purchased, let alone refurbished, something that is 80 years old.  But I saw a little Boudoir lamp on a dusty shelf that had a combo of a milk glass base and a hobnail body that I couldn't resist.  I suspect at one point it also had a hobnail lamp shade that somehow met an unfortunate incident. 

This post is about the journey of a lovely little lamp that cost me $3 and started its life somewhere between the 1920's and 30's according to the fact that it had a cloth cord.  Also, almost everything in the house was from the same era...I'm quick like that.

This is what the shelf looked like where I grabbed it from.  I also wanted that green lamp and desk lamp but both were snatched moments before I could get to them.  I'm telling you this is no joke.

When we plugged it in, suprisingly it still worked, but wouldn't be safe due to the frayed cloth cord.  So my husband took it apart piece by piece in about 3 minutes.

After some intense cleaning we purchased a new socket set and electrical cord from Home Depot.  We also painted those three rings you see at the top with brass spray paint due to the fact they were so rusty they wouldn't clean up nicely.  Then reassembly began using tips from this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNcUst55t5s) and about 10 minutes and a few curse words later my husband had it reassembled. It really sounds like rewiring a lamp would be a major undertaking but it was actually quite easy!

I purchased a new lamp shade and with all the parts we spent about $30.  But it was a very gratifying project and now we have a little piece of history on our bedside table.