There’s nothing quite like the right lampshade to set the tone of a room. But with such a vast array to choose from, how can you be sure you’re picking a shade that’s just so?
The first elements to take into consideration are fabric and colour. ‘Lighting is a vital ingredient for creating ambience,’ says illustrator and designer Bell Hutley.
‘Lampshades with thick fabric and dark patterns help to achieve a cosy light. In a room where you want more freshness – perhaps a kitchen – go for a simple, pale canvas or a linen shade with a floral pattern. Avoid anything too embellished, as it traps the light.’
For Mary Graham and Nicole Salvesen, who run the eponymous design studio Salvesen Graham, a lampshade ‘is a great way to inject colour and add an extra layer of texture to a room. We wouldn’t suggest a matching tone – go for contrast instead and try to have a mixture of sizes and styles in a space.’
The other major factor when shade-hunting is size. Get it wrong, and it can throw off the balance of a room completely. Hutley advises taking scale into account: ‘With rooms that have tall ceilings and large windows, I like lampshades that are also large and tall,’ she says. ‘In these rooms, more light fills the space, so the bigger the better.
‘In smaller rooms, I like sets of candle clip lampshades [designed to attach directly to a standard lightbulb]; they’re so versatile and easy to move around.’ [product contentProductId='c93cdcae-d413-4c83-aab5-4e8885668d37' mediaId='5de02025-42b0-4627-97b1-b33be615eadc' align='right' size='medium'][/product]
Graham and Salvesen have a neat hack to help you make sure you’re buying the right size. ‘The height of the shade should be approximately two thirds of the height of the lamp,’ they say, ‘which is always larger than you think’. We’d also suggest picking a shade with a width that’s twice as wide as the lamp base.
Finally, try to take risks with colour and material. This is your chance to be adventurous: as Graham and Salvesen point out, ‘you can make a real impact on a budget with a lampshade’, so try something out of your comfort zone.
