Things to consider when choosing fabric covering for your lampshades.

Everyday is different at Feature Lighting Towers - we work with such a huge variety of companies, fabrics, patterns & customers. The work is never the same - just look at the examples below to get an idea - neutral cream silk oblongs shades for a pair of up cycled bespoke bases made from iron balustrades. Tweed wool herringbone drum shades with contemporary linings. Mid century modern retro patterns on a variety of shade shapes and sizes. Contemporary textures on simple drums shades. Bold Scandinavian flower prints. Modern digital prints and classic Harris Tweed. Below are some things to consider when picking a fabric for your lampshades.

Feature 1 - Shade Shape & Size

This Interior Designer client had found some cast iron balustrades that she wanted to turn into table lamps - they were huge & needed a large rectangular lamp shades to reflect the oblong lamp base shape and to stay in proportion.

Nothing fancy needed for the shade material as they needed a good light output, so these were made in ivory polycotton on white lining. These oblong lamp shades work well, and the client is really pleased, but given the size of these lamp bases we could have justified even bigger lampshades.

We custom made these large rectangular lamp shades for bespoke table lamps - the client commission straight sided oblong shades that suit the bases - round drum shades just wouldn’t have worked here - we do also make tapered rectangular lampshades - you can see more examples of our Rectangle, Square an Oblong shaped lampshades here.

Feature 2 - Fabric Texture

Textured fabric makes a great lampshade when the light is switched off - you can really appreciate the fabric quality and weave, but the illuminated effect is often very different, so we have to take this into consideration, we sometimes advise using opaque internal lamination rather than a translucent one. Take a look at our gallery of Textured Lamp Shades.

Textured lamp shades, much like patterned light shades, are very forgiving & by that I mean that they can hide marks and blemishes that lampshades inevitably pick up during their lifetime and especially in high traffic areas, so are particularly suitable for commercial interiors - I would always advise a textured or patterned lampshade in commercial lighting design projects over plain fabrics. We do however have available some plain washable lampshade materials that are suited to commercial use.

Textured fabrics used to cover lampshades add a lovely tactile character and to a certain extent accoustic sound absorbent qualities, much as other soft furnishings do, which, in a hard surface interior scheme can be beneficial to dampen noise.

Feature 3 - Colour & Pattern

Why be limited to plain lamp shdes when you can go wild with pattern & colour. Designer patterned lampshades are perfect to add some wow factor into an interior. Visit our Gallery of Patterned lampshades

We have to be considerate to pattern placement when covering lampshades in fabric, particularly with a directional pattern design - this is easier on straight sided drum lampshades, but a bit more tricky on tapered lampshades.

If we laminate light fabric onto a white or opal base lamination then the lampshade colours will pop even more, and the light output will be bright and white. See some examples of Colourful Lamp Shades we have made.