How To Find The Perfect Sized Lampshade

What sized lampshade do I need?
How to find the perfect sized lampshade?
What lampshade will fit my lamp?

These are just some of the questions we are asked over and over again at Love Frankie HQ. Detailed below is the Love Frankie Low Down on how to find and measure up for your perfect lampshade.

Measuring up for your new lampshade can appear like a daunting task at first. There are plenty of things to think about including the size of your lamp base, the size of the room, the style of the lamp and even which materials and colours to use.
Many of these questions can be answered through personal taste and preference but we have a few tips and tricks to share with you to guarantee you’ll find your perfect Love Frankie Lampshade.

When finding the right sized lampshade for your table lamp or floor lamp, It is imperative to keep the lampshade in proportion to the lamp base. A lampshade too large will appear top heavy and a lampshade too small will always look unbalanced.
A great tip when trying to work out the best size lampshade for a table lamp is to measure the height of your lamp base, from the very bottom to the top excluding the bulb holder. Use the height measurement as your guide for the diameter of your shade.

Remember this calculation is just a guide and not a one size fits all.  Here is where you need to consider the style of your lamp base and to check the proportions. We suggest considering one size smaller and one size larger than your original diameter measurement to help you choose your final size.

Lampshade Sizing Example –
Your table lamp measures  12″ / 30cm in height, meaning the ideal size lampshade for your table lamp would be a 12″/ 30cm diameter lampshade. One size smaller would be our 10″ / 25cm diameter and one size larger would be a 14″ / 35cm diameter.

Take a look at our collection of Table Lamps to see which lampshades we have paired them with.

When finding the right sized lampshade for a floor lamp, it’s slightly more tricky as you can’t follow the same rule as above.
As a general rule of thumb, measure the height of the lampstand from the very bottom to the top (excluding the bulb holder.) We recommend dividing this measurement by 3 to get your ideal diameter / width for the lampshade.

Lampshade Sizing Example –
Your floor lamp measures 55″ / 140cm in height divide this number by 3 gives you a lampshade diameter guide of 18″ or 45cms.

You can size up or down depending on your personal preference and of course, you must always considering the style and shape of your floor lamp.

When trying to work out the right size lampshade for your ceiling pendant light, it is also important to think about proportions. A small lampshade hanging from the ceiling in a large room isn’t going to disperse a lot of light. Whilst an oversized large lampshade is going to look a little OTT in a small room or hallway.
Sadly there isn’t any foolproof calculations on how best to find the right size ceiling pendant lampshades but what must be considered is:

– The size of the room
– The height of the ceiling
– Where the flex and fitting set hangs in the room, Over a table? Over the bed? How low can you hang your shade?

We hope the Love Frankie Lampshade sizing guide below will help you decide what size lampshade might be right for your space.

One of our favourite tricks to help you visualise the right sized lampshade for your table or floor lamp is to cut a rectangular shape out of paper or cardboard.
Using the dimensions written in the table above, cut out of paper or card the size you think might work best for your lamp and hold the paper rectangle above your lampbase. By creating paper templates in different sizes will help you ascertain your perfect lampshade size.

For ceiling pendant lampshades, we find it easier to cut out large cardboard circles using the diameter sizes above. Ask a friend to hold these high to the ceiling and this will help you visualise the best sized ceiling pendant lampshade for your room.

– Be aware of the space around the lampshade, Is your floor lamp to be placed in the corner of the room or next to an obstacle? A large shade will require extra room meaning your lamp base may protrude further from the wall further than you expected.
This is also particularly important when thinking about lampshades for bedside tables or smaller side tables.

– Consider different Lampshade shapes other than a standard Drum Shape Lampshade. For example our King and Queen cone lampshades are oversized tall lampshades which are designed to work with, short, bulbous table lamps.

– All our lampshades are handmade using flame retardant PVC meaning there is no maximum wattage requirements for our lampshades. Please consult the wattage guide for your table / floor lamp or flex and fitting set.

– Consideration must also be given to the type of bulb used with your lamp or flex set. A vintage style LED filament bulb will give off a different hue to a compact fluorescent bulb.

– The colour and lining of your lampshade will also play a part in the colour of the light you will receive. A metallic lined lampshade will reflect the light from the bulb giving a warm ambient glow. But – no light can permeate through the sides of the lampshade meaning your light source will be directionally up and down.

– A light coloured cotton or linen lampshade with no lining will beautifully diffuse the light through the sides of the shade. Meaning your light source will not only be directionally up and down it will glow through the sides of the shade giving you the maximum light source.

– A dark coloured cotton or linen lampshade with no lining will also diffuse the light through the sides of the shade but will more muted than a light coloured cotton.

We hope our lampshade sizing guide has been helpful. Do you have any top tips on how you decide the right sized lampshade for your room or for your lamp? We would love to hear your ideas!

And of course the Love Frankie team are always on hand to help advise on sizing for you. So please send through images of your lamp base along with the dimensions and we’ll do our very best to find you the perfect Love Frankie lampshade.