{PB Inspired Etched Mercury Glass Lamp}

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in round two of Creative Bloggers Got Talent.  I made it to round three!  You can check out the top fifteen here.  This is the project I created for round two, and since the winners have been posted, I can share the tutorial with you now.  :) Do you ever check out Pottery Barn online just to dream a little?  I do.  Recently, I came across this AWESOME etched mercury glass lamp.  I love it, but, unfortunately, I don't have $259 to spend on one lamp.  So I started thinking about how I could make my own.  I remembered seeing these lamps that the awesome Shannon of Anythingology made, and as soon as I thought of them, I knew how I could create my own etched mercury glass lamp!   To make the lamp, I started with a glass cylinder vase, Krylon Looking Glass spray paint, and faux etching paint.  I used other supplies that I'll tell you about when I get to them.

I covered the outside of the cylinder vase with newspaper and tape and followed some DIY mercury glass directions I had pinned from A Stylish Interior.  (Here's another set of directions too from Take the Side Street.)  I did one thing a little different than the directions, though.  (I think I saw this somewhere on the web as well.)  After I did the whole spray paint and vinegar thing over and over, the glass just didn't have the exact mercury look I was going for.  So I sprayed the inside with Krylon Metallic Gold spray paint.

 I am a perfectionist, which is almost a recipe for disaster with this technique, so I kept spraying and using vinegar and spraying until there was so much spray that the vinegar wouldn't eat through it anymore.  So I just stopped spraying.  Then it was time to create the "etched" design.  I used my Silhouette to create a damask contact paper stencil.  I used the faux etching kit I had to create the design on the glass.

I assume they still make the kit I used for the faux etching.  I had it for a REALLY long time and had never used it, but I'm sure if they don't sell this kit anymore, there is some other type of faux etching paint you can get, or you can use real etching cream.  Next, it was time to make the cylinder a lamp.  This is where Shannon's lamp tutorial came into play.

I got a bottle lamp kit from Walmart, as well as some Gorilla Glue epoxy.  I put the lamp kit together, and glued it to the vase using the epoxy.  Check out Shannon's tutorial for the exact how-to.  (One thing to note, though, is that if you buy a bottle lamp kit, you don't have to drill a hole in the lamp components.  It's already there.)

I taped the lamp kit in place while the epoxy dried for the full time the package directions called for.  I bought a shade from Walmart, put it on, and for a little over $20, I now how a PB inspired lamp!

I think I'm going to do something to the shade later on, but for now, I'm satisfied.

It was really hard to get a picture that fully captured the mercury glass look of the lamp because the paint is so reflective.  It doesn't look like the exact tutorials that I followed; it has an aged look I really like.

It's not an exact replica of the PB lamp, but it looks great in my living room, and I'm so glad that it didn't cost me $259!  :)