decorating a lamp

[Daphne]

I found a tall lamp in our guest bedroom that I brought into the den. It has a terrible looking lamp shade but I know that is an easy fix. The base of the lamp is a cheap looking brass with a long pole the same color. How would you decorate it? Spray paint? If so what kind would I get? I saw something on Trading Spaces once when they hid the pole of the lamp with bamboo sticks but that wouldn't fit my decor. Looking forward to any advice you have. TIA

[Daphne]

The style of our house is pretty casual. It's the style you would see in any Pier 1 store or a Pottery Barn. I don't really know what that style would be. I was looking on hgtv.com and found a few ideas. One was to paint a primer on and then two coats of a latex paint and then put a wood stain on it. Said it kind of gives it an aged look. I'm going to go look for a lamp shade tomorrow to help me decide what color I want to paint the base. Oh, the colors in our home are browns, greens, burgandy, beige. A lot of neutral colors.

[frugalmel]

Here is an idea. After you paint the lampbase the way you would like it get an inexpenive frame and paint/stencil some designs on it. Then hot glue some beaded trim (I found some at Wal-mart for another project) around the bottom edge. I might try this in our living room if I can find beads to go with the hunter green/burgundy theme.