Yes I did try to spray paint shades once but all the imperfections showed whent he light was turned on. The only thing I can suggest is to sew a tube of fabric with elastic at the top and bottom to make it 'fitted', or glue fabric onto the shade, from the inside top and bottom. To make the pattern spread out any paper then lay shade on its side and roll it 360 degs , tracing as you go. Good luck, Salena

I've seen lampshades decopauged with things like music sheet paper. I'm not sure what you could do if you want them to stay one color.

if they're NOT rust stains, you might try spraying them lightly with laundry pre-spot, then backing them with a dry towel, and spritzing the stains with water to rinse, lifting any residual liquid off with a dry sponge.

if that doesn't work, it's disguise it (decoupage over them, sponge them to create a 'textured' pattern to the light, or recover them, which can be an enourmous hassle if they're the least bit complex.

I have carefully cut pretty flowers from material, lightly coated just the backs with white glue and applied them to a lampshade. That was over 5 years ago and they haven't loosened a bit. Very pretty, especially when lit. I have also hidden small flaws with the use of various trims applied with a hot glue gun. This works well when problem areas are near an edge. Two shades with a more central eyesore I was able to hide beneath lightweight, heart shaped 'charms' using the glue gun. Once I saw a lampshade that was made of cloth and had a crackle finish applied to it. Don't know how that was done, but the results were stunning.

I made this lampshade by decoupaging small torn pieces of green tissue paper on a black shade.