apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


Good Questions: New Lampshade for Sentimental Lamp?

04-30_GQ1.jpg

Hello AT! My mom is looking for a replacement lampshade for this lamp, which belonged to her grandfather (don't know if you can see the tape on the current lampshade, but I'm thinking the lampshade belonged to her grandfather too!). Are these type of lampshades still made? Does this style have a name? I'm hoping there are some AT readers out there might be able to point my mom in the right direction. The lamp has sentimental value, but clearly it desperately needs a new shade. Many thanks! Molly

(Include a pic of your query and your question gets posted first! Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: boston (at) apartmenttherapy (dot) com)
 
 
(Include a pic of your query and your question gets posted first! Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to: boston (at) apartmenttherapy (dot) com)

Tags

Good Questions, lampshade, antique, lamps

Related Links

Share

Comments (12)

if there's a store in this small city (London, Canada) that sells nothing but lampshades (Shadee Ladies), there must be one in Boston! Yellow Pages under lamps???

posted by rouquinne on April 30th 2009 at 9:58am
view rouquinne's profile

That is called a bridge lamp. They were poplular in the early 1900's. You need an UNO lamp shade like the one in your photo. They have a ring in the centre that rests on the electrical socket.

I did a quick Google...here a some examples.
http://www.hoylelamps.com/Lamp%20Shades%20-%20Uno%20Lamp%20Shades.htm

It would be best to take the lamp base to a good lamp store where you can try them for size and style. It's not a popular type of shade these days but they are still made. They are considered a bit of a hazard as the shade ring rests on the socket but being an antique you want to be true to the integrity of the lamp. Newer lamps can be converted to a harp style.

I have a couple of these antique lamps and they're lovely. I have a photo from the 60's showing a funky retro shade my mom put on it. Very eclectic. :)

posted by HM63 on April 30th 2009 at 10:01am
view HM63's profile

Joanne's sells a self stick shade that you cover with fabric or whatever, but I've never been able to find one with that type of clip at the top. (It hangs off the bulb or screws onto the socket itself, right?)

It's easy to make a new shade using the wire rims from your grandfather's shade. Carefully cut the existing paper shade off the wire rims and use this as a template to figure out how much material you'll need. At the art supply store you can buy stiff plasticy-papery peel-off stuff for the shade and decorative paper (or use fabric) to stick to the outside (visable to the room) part of the shade. Trace your template onto both the sticky stuff and the decorative stuff, and cut it out and stick it together. Now wrap it around the wire rims using clothes pins or bulldog clips every inch or so to hold them in place. Glue and let dry. Then attach trim (again, clothespins or bulldog clips and glue) from the fabric store at the top and bottom of the shade to hide the rims.

I've covered several of these these home-made shades with fabric, and made an AWESOME one for my reading lamp using bits of lettering cut out of magazines. You'll probably find better directions on the web, but it's not hard to do.

posted by decWishICud on April 30th 2009 at 10:02am
view decWishICud's profile

Ikea has shades which can fit on the bulbs.. unscrew bulb put on shade screw bulb back in. this is the large there also is a small. I used this on an old pull chain light.. same problem
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50123517

posted by parrishnut on April 30th 2009 at 10:14am
view parrishnut's profile

Go to a custom lamp shop in your area and bring in your lamp. Then you can try on different shades on your lamp and they can make a shade that will be perfect for your lamp. They can also make recommendations.

I recently purchased a pair of lamps from Craigslist that were made in the 1930's. I will be going to a custom lamp shade shop since it's been hard finding a shade that comes down long enough to cover the hardware (I need about a 12 inch drop and most over the counter shades are 11 inch.) There are multiple on-line retailers too-I think gallery84.com was one but I dont' quite remember because I looked at so many. If you google lamp shades, they should come up.

posted by Dream Mom on April 30th 2009 at 10:45am
view Dream Mom's profile

Get in contact with a place like Hansen's Lamps (http://www.hansenlamp.com/). They do custom lamps for people all over the world, and have very reasonable prices. They might even have the shade you want in stock. If you want to keep you shade, they can even recover it with the fabric of your choice!

I highly recommend them (I do not work for them, just used them before) : http://www.hansenlamp.com/

posted by Craftypants on April 30th 2009 at 10:47am
view Craftypants's profile

Thanks to everyone for all of this very useful info! My mom thanks you too!

posted by MollydeA on April 30th 2009 at 11:03am
view MollydeA's profile

This is great! I have two lamps very similar to this one, except mine are black (wrought iron?). They were my grandmother's. I've been looking for replacement shades as well. Great tips. Thanks everyone.

posted by clampers on April 30th 2009 at 11:33am
view clampers's profile

HM63-- Thanks for the Boyle's link/Uno shade info. --Mary

posted by missmaryc on April 30th 2009 at 12:28pm
view missmaryc's profile

You can get a bridge adaptor-- a clip of sorts-- to adapt a typical shade for use on this type of lamp.

Here's one on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Brass-Plated-Uno-Adapter-for-Bridge-Lamp-Shades_W0QQitemZ180343376226QQcmdZViewItem

posted by PhillyLass on April 30th 2009 at 1:09pm
view PhillyLass's profile

looks kinda cool as-is

posted by sunan on May 2nd 2009 at 9:10pm
view sunan's profile

I had the same problem. I found a lampshade that I liked, but it was for a table lamp, and had the two round metal pieces that clamp down over the top of the bulb. I pried them apart enough so that they could fit over the socket of my floor lamp and it worked fine and the lampshade wasnt altered at all.

posted by sjvsjv on May 3rd 2009 at 1:09am
view sjvsjv's profile

Feeds

RSS icon Boston

+ City Feeds