The best way to Select a Lamp Shade

You will find fairly a few problems to take into account when selecting a lamp shade. After 27 years of helping dealers, designers and retail consumers match their lamps and shades these defining points which will permit you to answer this occasionally daunting question for yourself.

Beauty is not the only thing within the eye of the beholder. Individuals could already have preconceived ideas of the right size, shape, color, material, etc. for a particular lamp shade. Further, after 1 has looked upon and lived with a specific lamp and shade mixture for years any deviation from that may really likely be perceived as "wrong". So, how can you be positive that a particular lamp shade is proper or that it "goes" with the lamp? Maintain three basic points foremost in your mind: portrayal style, shade size and shade vertical location.

PORTRAYAL STYLE: First and foremost, what do you wish to portray with the lamp? Take a look at your lamp and determine what style it's including contemporary, traditional, antique, funky, etc. Should you really can't discern a particular style then you must choose what is the style or look that you wish to portray with this lamp. You will want the basic look or style of your lamp shade to compliment, not clash with the lamp style itself. You typically do not want a extremely ornate and detailed shade should you wish to portray the clean lines of a quite contemporary lamp. Likewise, you do not want a clean cut Chinese coolee kind shade for a lamp that you would like to portray as a traditional style. Think in terms of like styles for the lamp and shade. This does not mean like colors, textures, size etc. but general style. Once you have decided the general lamp style that you wish to portray, then you can start concentrating on other details.

SHADE SIZE: This characteristic of your lamp shade like all the others will of course be subjective and will vary with the observer. But you will find some guidelines which will support you decide the boundaries within which you should consider. You might be basically trying to find a balance in lamp and shade sizes that will make the lamp look neither top heavy or bottom heavy when viewed from a distance of about 20 feet away.

There are four (4) measurements to take into account when selecting a shade: top diameter (across), bottom diameter (across), side length (slope), and drop. The drop is the vertical distance the shade washer is from the top edge of the shade. Don't be too concerned with the drop. The drop and the harp size will decide the shade vertical location which we will cover later. You just need to be conscious that various shades do have different drops. Modest changes in the bottom diameter (1"-2") will have a dramatic effect on the look of your lamp. The same applies to the side length and top diameter. The many combinations of these various measurements may be mind boggling. Below are some specific guidelines that you'll be able to carry with you to the store when selecting a lamp shade.

Medium - little size conventional or antique style lamps which are 20" - 27" tall to the top of the shade will likely need shades about 9" - 11" side length and 16" - 19" bottom diameter.

Medium size traditional or antique style lamps which are 27" - 30" tall to the top of the shade will likely need shades about 11" - 13" side length and 16" - 19" bottom diameter.

Big size conventional or antique style lamps which are 30" - 36" tall to the top of the shade will likely need shades about 12" - 15" side length and 18" - 20" bottom diameter.

For every of the above examples, contemporary lamp shades will usually have larger bottom diameters and possibly side length also. Larger diameter lamps require larger diameter shades and more slender lamps need smaller diameter shades.

Multiple socket lamps are a unique consideration that needs to be addressed by an experienced lighting professional that you'll find in most reputable lamp and lighting showrooms.

SHADE VERTICAL LOCATION: This characteristic of your lamp shade is fairly straightforward to judge. It is the vertical location of the bottom edge of your lamp shade. On a single socket lamp this will nearly often be about 2" below the bottom of the socket assembly. To figure out the correct vertical location, 1st look straight across the bottom edge of the lamp shade and visually line up the near edge of the shade with the far edge of the shade. This line ought to then intersect about 2" below the bottom of the socket assembly for most single socket lamps. The way that you adjust this vertical location of the lamp shade is with the HARP. This is the "U" shaped wire that attaches the lamp to the shade and it comes in different lengths from about 4" on up.

Shorter shades will require shorter harps and longer shades will need longer harps. Multiple socket lamps are a unique consideration and I strongly suggest professional guidance for these instances, specifically for safety concerns also as aesthetic values.