Bespoke Lamp Shade Design Tips: Size & Shape Rules

Talking Shades / Story by Rita Horne / 14 May 2019

Is lamp shade design part of your project? In part two of our “Design Tips” series, our MD Fiona Ascroft offers up some valuable advice for designers, based on the questions we get asked most often.

Are there any rules we should be following?

Don’t worry too much about the ‘rules’ of getting the right shape or size for your lampshade.

I would suggest roughly sketching out your base and shade to scale to get a sense of size. If you get a chance, try out other lamp shades on the lamp or take reference from the existing shade – it’s easier then to visualise extra inches up or down.

You don’t have to be reliant on your choice of lamp base. With bespoke shade making you can vary things up by designing a more eye-catching and intricate lamp shade to sit on a very simple base.

Small simple lampshade = shorter base

Large lampshade = taller base

Small lampshade = shorter base

A useful thing to remember is that the height of the shade in relation to the lamp base can make a real difference. If a shade looks too big, try sitting it higher on your lamp base and vice versa.

The room below in Sanders Hotel Copenhagen uses both effectively in the one suite:

It’s useful to think that if you would like a taller lamp shade you can have a narrower diameter or for a shorter shade, go wider.