Comments on: How to Choose the Right Lamp Shades

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:01:13 +0000

Hi Ros

I can’t really picture your room and lamp from your description so although a natural colored shade would probably be best, I can’t really give you great advice on that. It’s probably best to take your lamp base to a specialist lighting shop and get them to find a shade to fit it for you. Take pictures of your room with you, so that you have the colors and style of the room to show them and hopefully they will be able to solve your decorating problem on the spot.

Jan

By: Ros

Ros — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:54:48 +0000

I have a Stiffel lamp that has not shade, it’s about 30 inches tall with a 6inch harp. I’m having a hard time finding a shade to fit, any suggestions on the style, size and color? The room is painted a light sage green with wood floors, expresso colored leather couch in room.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:46:21 +0000

The torchiere style uplighters produce a soft wash of light above the area they are situated – across a wall if they are close to a wall. They add general light to a room. The other types of lights point downwards and are better for illuminating a particular area around a table or chair for example, and would make it easier to read although in general because of the deeply colored glass in shades Tiffany lamps are more decorative than particularly functional in terms of adding a lot of light for close work.

Jan

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:39:17 +0000

I want to redocorate and I am thinking about buying Tiffney style floor lamps.
What is the difference between the lamp shades that point up than the lamp shades that point down?

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:59:27 +0000

Hi Ruth.

if you have quite a small place then it is good to harmonize colors with lamp shades and other accessories and bring everything together but it would be odd to pick just one color and use it throughout. I would advise using one color family though – so favoring either warm shades of peach, orange, rust, beige etc and using those colors in accessories and lampshades or choosing a whole set in cool colors such as turquoise, various blues, teal and so on. If you already have cushions, curtains and bedding, try and choose a color already present in these for other items in the room to create a color scheme in each room that hangs together well.

Hope that helps

Jan

By: Ruth

Ruth — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:20:04 +0000

Hi Jan,
My husband & I are renting at present & we need lampshades for d hall, bedroom & spare room. But can’t decide on choice of colour. The walls are white, we can’t paint them. The bedroom has wooden furniture medium in colour & the blinds are made of white wood. My bed linen is various in colour & I would like to get bedside lamps too. The hall is narrow & long with two lights, however one of them is in d way of a door leading to d washer-dryer. In the spare room The furniture is dark wood & an office cream blind with a PC work station. Please help!

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:30:18 +0000

Hi, yes, as a general rule the height of the lamp shade should be no larger than a third of the total height but it does depend on the proportions of the lamp base and the shape of the shade so there are exceptions. If you have a very wide lamp base it might be that the shade can be a bit larger in proportion. In that case you just have to trust your eye if you have an unusual base or shade. Does it look top heavy on not? In these cases I would want to see the base with the shade and not buy my lamp shades online but in a store where I can see the base and shade together. Of course, if you are buying a whole lamp with shade included the designer will have out together a size and shape of base and shade which go well together and you can usually trust this so you could buy table lamps online without a problem.

Jan

By: J Madison

J Madison — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:37:48 +0000

When it says the size of the lamp shade should be no larger than a third of the height of the base, what dimension it that referring to….height of the shade? What about a lamp with a wide base….should the diameter measurement or shade height take that into consideration?

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:14:42 +0000

Hi Linda

you can liven things up a little with a rich burgundy red lamp shade, create a warm glow with a gold colored shade or if you want to stay natural and keep the shade in the background stick with cream or your sofa color, even mushroom or rust. A lot depends on the other items in the room. It can work well to choose a plain lamp shade which picks out one of the colors from your curtains or cushions, for example.

Let me know if you’re still stuck

Jan

By: linda guerrieri

linda guerrieri — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:03:21 +0000

what color shade would you put in a living room that will give a warm glow to the room. the walls are cream color and the sofa is a couple of shades darker