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Lampshade Fittings

Lampshades come with many different tyoes of fitting - some attach to the light bulb, some attached to the lamp holder with a screw fitting, some attach via a shade carrier with Duplex or Harp to an American style washer top. We can make lampshades with all of these different styles of fittings as long as we know the dimensions which does play an important part in getting the right fit for your lamp shades.

You would not believe just how many different lampshade frame fittings we have, let alone all of the different shapes, sizes and colours as well.

This lampshade has a reversible gimbal fitting - as pictured is will fit a table or floor lamp, or you can rotate the fitting so that it will fit as a ceiling pendant lampshade. The directional print of this lampshade will always be correct.

This lamp shade has an Amercian style washer top fitting that will fit to a harp on a lamp base - these are usually finished off with a decorative finial.

This light shade has a Duplex fitting and can sit on a shade carrier on a table or floor lamp - or alternatively can be hung from a ceiling light with a ‘spider’

Lampshade Fittings

Do you need a lampshade with an unusual fitting? Well we can make it for you, right here in our Lancashire workshop.

Standard Lampshade fitting - there really isn’t such a thing as a “standard” lampshade fitting, this probably really means most commonly available in the shops, and even this has changed over the years. The B22 fitting is very much an old English / UK thing for a Bayonet light bulb (the bulb with the 2 pins that you push in and twist to fit the lampholder), be that a cheap white plastic ceiling pendant fitting or a brass bulb holder on a table or floor lamp. This B22 bayonet fitting is being gradually squeezed out of the UK market by the more common Euro E27 screw fitting which is more commonly available to buy in high street shops like Ikea or online stores whose products are imported from abroad.

  • B22 lampshade ring internal hole meaures 29mm diameter.

  • E27 Lamp shade ring internal hole measures 40-42mm diameter

Easy fit lampshades are a marketing term more than an actual type of light fitting ( we see it used a lot in John Lewis, Marks & Spenser and Dunelm) . It refers to a E27 gimbal that is often on rotatable / reversible arms, and can be fitted with a reducer ring to fit B22, meaning that it can be adapted for mutiple situations: Makes it an easy lampshade model to stock and sell from a shop - “easy to fit” means that the lampshades can be used on table and floor lamps as well as pendant fittings - the reversible gimbal is especially useful where a shade has a covering with a directional pattern or tapered shape meaning you can’t just turn it upside down, but you can reverse the gimbal fitting inside.

Reversible Gimbal fitting as pictured :

American Washer Top fittings on a Harp are increasingly found here in the UK, as the name suggests they orginated as an American style of fitting - Lampshades used on harps of differing heights. As the Far East have manufactuered more lamp bases and lights using this fitting for the American markets this fitting has seeped into the UK market and very few lampshades are made to fit this type of lamp, they are often taller than the average lampshade as well, so if you are looking to change or update your lamp shades you may find it difficult to find a lampshade with this small M10 washer top fitting off the shelf. ( luckily for you we can make them bespoke for you)

Duplex Shade & Carrier - Duplex is a handy fitting as it offers a flexible solution to most situations. It’s not as discrete as other light shade fitting types, there are more struts to interfere with the light source, but that is a small price to pay to get a lampshade that fits well, especially if you are not sure on what size and height you want and if you are prone to swapping your lampshades around on different bases.

Shade carriers come in different heights, and you can get height adjustable shade carriers as well, which are super useful.

Candle Clip fitting

Golf Ball Clip fitting

GLS Clip fitting

C-Washer / Pacman fitting

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION - In addition to differentiating the fitting type, the dimensions are also really important to tailor a lampshade to fit exactly. The lampshade has what we call a “drop” to the fitting and that is the dimension from either the top ( on a pendant light) or bottom (on a table or floor light) to where the gimbal is - it effectively ensures that the shade covers the bulb and bulb holder and looks good.