I’ve been seeing pleated lampshades all over my For You page lately, and they are seriously adorable—so much charm packed into one little piece of decor! The only downside? Buying one new can get pretty pricey. So I thought, why not try making my own? Especially since this is a no-sew version… and let me tell you, it’s the easiest DIY ever.
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Materials Needed:
- Fabric of your choice (I bought one yard for a large lampshade)
- Lampshade – anything will do, it’s great to thrift one!
- Fabric scissors / fabric cutter
- Cutting mat
- Iron
- Hot glue gun
- Ribbon (optional)
- Lace trim (optional)
- Fabric glue (optional)
Step One: Find a Lampshade & Pick Your Fabric!
I already had this lampshade, but if you want a different one for your base, I recommend a thrift store!! For the fabric, I headed to my local fabric store and found a print I loved! I went with a busier pattern so little imperfections would blend right in. My fabric cost $12/yard, and one yard was enough for my large lampshade. Since I added ribbon as trim, I didn’t need extra, but if you want to use fabric strips for trim too, you may want to plan on getting 2 yards, depending on the size of your lampshade
Step Two: Cut and Iron your Strips
Using my rotary cutter, I sliced the fabric into 3″ strips. This made the process so much faster (highly recommend!). Keep the strips just slightly longer than your lampshade height. I found 3″ is the sweet spot—any smaller gets tricky to work with.
Next, fold each side of the strip toward the middle (like a tri-fold) and press with your iron. These pleats don’t need to be perfect, just neat enough to give structure.
Step Three: Glue the Pleats
Now the fun part! Start at the seam of your lampshade. Add hot glue to the top edge, press one side of your first strip into place, and leave the other edge free so you can tuck the last strip under it at the end (for a seamless look). Pull the strip straight down and glue along the bottom edge—don’t angle it.
As you go, slightly overlap each strip. On my shade, I overlapped a bit more at the top than the bottom. Just add a line of glue halfway over the last strip, then onto the shade itself, and keep layering. Once everything is glued down, trim the edges neatly along the top and bottom.
It was really starting to look beautiful here!!
Step Four: Add Trim
I decided to add velvet ribbon for the top and bottom trim. You could easily use the same fabric as the pleats for this portion! I cut the velvet ribbon to the same length as top and bottom. For the top portion, I folded it over top to give it a neat and rounded out look. I used fabric glue in combination with hot glue to set it in place. The fabric glue is nice because if it goes down uneven, it’s easy to shift it exactly where I want it and then use some hot glue.
For the bottom portion, I just lined it up along the bottom(not folding it over this time) and used fabric glue again. Lastly, I wanted to add in a cute ruffle lace trim, I hot glued it to the inside of the lampshade along the rim line and it worked so well!
And voila, a beautiful and charming lampshade! Don’t forget to check out my blog for other fun DIYs and home projects – like the cutting board wall or creating a cozy coffee bar nook!
