Decor on the cheap

My husband is not cheap! He's merely...frugal. He doesn't mind spending money in some areas, but when it comes to home accessories he thinks cheaper's better. Luckily he doesn't buy that many, but when he needed a lamp for his reading corner he came home with something that looked sorta like this:
It was the cheapest he could find at Walmart, and I instantly hated it. Granted it's in our BR so it's not as if visitors have to look at it, but I do. So, again from Walmart, I got these rub-on thingies to put on the shades, which are cheap plastic. I think it looks scads better.

Here's the whole corner, his little refuge from the rest of the family (me and my cat Max). He reads well into the night sometimes and the lamp works perfectly for him. I can even tolerate it now, but barely.

The drapes are my own mistreatment--two twin-size matelasse coverlets hung by curtain rings--as is the chair pillow--a linen dresser scarf I picked up from a garage sale. I handstitched it together--the needlework on the original was so beautiful I couldn't pluck it out--and stitched on some tassel fringe. As Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.