Handmade Lampshades Tutorial

Lampshades are often an afterthought when it comes to decorating a room, but can actually contribute greatly to the design and feel of your interior being a flexible way of adding colour and pattern. I've been making drum lampshades for over 10 years now.

There are a number of things to bear in mind when purchasing a lampshade:

Fitting

Is your shade for a ceiling pendant light fitting, a side/table lamp or a standing lamp - it is important to make sure the shade you buy is suitable for its purpose as fittings may vary.

Do you need a lampshade with UK standard fittings or are you looking for a shade to fit a base from IKEA or similar which use wider European (ES) fittings?

Size

If for a central ceiling pendant light bear in mind how large your room is, you don't want a tiny shade that will be lost in the space, equally a large shade will dominate the space. Don't forget that if you hang it too low some of your taller friends and family may bump their heads - I once had a beautiful silk shade that was huge, but I hung it so low my husband used to have to walk around it!

For a lamp base, the shade should skim the top of the base with no hardware or sockets visible when you look at your lamp whilst standing in the room.

Shape

The coolie/empire shapes are becoming less fashionable for ceiling lights being replaced by the more contemporary drum shape, but they still look great for a small beside lamp.

Light

If you want to use a glaring 100 watt bulb, be sure that the shade you buy can take this high wattage, many shades advise a maximum of 60 watt but some are as low as 40 watt and therefore don't allow much light through. Don't opt for a dark coloured shade if you want a lot of light to shine through. I recommend using a max 60watt bulb with all of my shades, although 100 watt equivalent energy saving light bulbs will work well too.

Care

Lampshades are not the easiest things to clean and can attract dust. You can buy 'lampshade cleaners' which are basically a rubber sponge that brush the dust off. Otherwise a soft bristled paint brush should do the trick and some people even use the upholstery attachment of a vacuum cleaner, but having not tried this myself I would advise that you take care if using this method.