We have for a while now been in desperate need of more light in our living room.  Unless we have the “high beams” from our overhead fan on, its darn right caveish in here and terrible for any kind of reading at night.  Our previous lamps were cute.  They had a dark brown base and a tan leather-ette shade…wow, I know it sounds terrible to me too.  However, back then they were great.  The pair went really well with my previous style and we had them for a long time.  But through various falls, a move or two and a rambunctious toddler they were half broken and I guess sadly/thankfully the days of stylish “leather-ette” were over.

So we sold them at our yard sale this past spring.

We have been shopping for the right lamp ever since.  That’s right I said lamp.  We only have room for uno lampara.  Our HUGE couch and HUGE chair leave us just enough room to squeeze a HUGE end table in between them.  All of this large furniture has bullied a second lamp out of the picture.  Bummer, I know.

Spotting nice lamps everywhere, I immediately noticed this one.  Cute right?  I love Jule’s house (and all of her necklaces).

I liked the shape of it and obviously that it was filled with shells.  Inspiration accomplished, Danny approved and the hunt was officially on.

The problem I ran into is they had a hefty price tag.  Like these lovely lamps (shade not included in the price).  They can even be monogrammed!  Love that!  And those green tables, but let’s not get side tracked.

Pottery Barn $160-$199

Even at places like Amazon.com and Overstock.com they are a tad over our budget and just not ringing any bells, I’m not really digging that brown shade.

Amazon.com $157.40

I know for most that a hundred and fifty bucks is NOT a lot for a lamp and under different circumstances it wouldn’t be.  Just don’t wanna spend that kinda dough right now.  We have come across cheaper ones, but the glass is so thin that we worried about it breaking.  Some were even pre-cracked at the store and ready to explode into a thousand shards once a certain lefty picked em up.  Not to mention this was definitely a deal breaker whilst the munchkin face owns things around here.  Soooo….

We weren’t committing but keeping our eye out,  hoping we’d catch one and that it would awesomely meet a few criteria:

• Be shapely.  Not just tall or fat. Oh, and not too big.
• Thick glass that won’t break very easily.
•  Practically FREE or at a steep steep discount.
• Criteria for a lamp?  This girl must be nuts.

Wellllllll, I’m certainly glad I didn’t splurge because I found the perfect one by chance at a local thrift shop and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

It certainly meets all of the criteria and it was only…$10!!!  I did find a matching shade from the Pottery Barn outlet that was marked down from $54.00 to $34.99 so the total for this gorgeous and “perfect for me” lamp is around $45!

The prettiest part is the patina, it has some years to it which I really like.  I picture it sitting by an open window at some beach house where the salt air did its thang.

Oh, and it was already filled with pretty shells=BONUS!  The glass is very thick, its shapely and just the right size.  And I saved myself well over a hundred bucks.

I love that its probably one of a kind.  I don’t think there are a lot of rusty old shell lamps roaming around.  The only down side is I hate it sitting on my current end table.  So I’m sure you can imagine what is next on my shortlist.  The same day I picked up this lamp I also scored a beautiful headboard for $40 to go in my daughter’s room.

I’m going to paint it and share it soon.  Have you come across anything while at a flea market/yard sale/thrift store that fit just perfectly?  Definitely share it, I’d love to see it!

Thanks for stopping by and understanding that yes, I can write an entire post about a lamp…I’m weird like that.

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