|
By: Richard Cazzo
Website: http://www.lamps-n-lighting.com
With lamp shades, the line between sophisticated
and silly is a fine one. Shape, style, and proportion
can make the difference between a room with the
elegance of Jackie Onassis and one where Oliver
Hardy might feel more at home.
According to lamp shade designer Sue Johnson,
selecting a lampshade is as personal as choosing
a hat. "The choice of lamp shades is an individual
one. What might look good to me might not look
good to someone else," she says. But no matter
what your style, some rules apply. We outline
the basics here.
Establish the function of the lamp shade. Of
the four types of lighting--decorative, accent,
task, and ambient--decorative and task lighting
are most commonly accomplished with table and
floor lamps. Recessed cans or track lights that
emphasize objects in a room are accent lights.
Ambient light is the gentle indirect light bounced
off ceilings and walls, from such fixtures as
cove lights or masked uplights.
Decorative lamps and their lamp shades simply
need to be beautiful and fit the space where they
will sit. Task lighting calls for a shade broad
enough to provide illumination to the entire work
area. "The bottom of the lamp shade should
be at your shoulder height when you are seated,"
Johnson says. "That way, it casts a bright
light on your book but doesn't throw glare in
your eyes."
Reading lamps, a form of task lighting, demand
large lamp shade. "First, you will want a
lot of directed light to come from the lamp. Second,
you will want bright light, and that means a bigger
shade. The higher the wattage, the bigger the
shade needs to be," Johnson says. Take into
account how many people will be reading by the
lamp's light. Two people require a larger pool
of light than one person. The broader the shade,
the larger the light pool it creates. For detailed
jobs, the spread should encompass the work area.
Choose a location. The size of the lamp shade
also depends on the lamp's placement. A lamp on
a low table can wear a shorter shade than a lamp
on a mantelpiece because you can't see underneath
a shade below eye level. The same lamp shade on
a mantel, however, may not cover the bulb and
harp (the piece that curves around the bulb and
holds the shade). The character of the room may
have an influence as well: A small room with delicate
furniture might suggest a small, delicate shade.
Fit the lamp shade to the size and shape of the
lamp base. The basic purposes of a lamp shade
are to hide the hardware surrounding the bulb
and to prevent glare. A shade needs to be large
and low enough to accomplish those jobs. That
general guideline, however, leaves you with a
wide array of choices. Sue Johnson advises, "A
good place to start is with the lamp's shape.
If you can pick up a detail of the base's shape
in the shade, you'll produce a harmonious look."
So if you have a lamp with a square base, try
a square shade. A round or cylindrical base might
look good with a round shade.
Finding the proper scale is also important; try
several lamp shades to find the best one. Again,
a good place to start is with the architecture
of the base. A narrow base may look best with
a smaller shade. A broader base could shine with
a larger shade. Of course, exceptions abound.
If a lamp shade you like seems either too long
or too short, a few tricks can change where it
fails on the base. You can swap the harp for a
taller or shorter one, or you can add a raiser--a
metal rod that screws on to the highest point
of the harp--to raise the shade. Check hardware
and lighting supply stores for these parts.
Consider the wattage required and the heat that
will be generated. "For reading, you will
need at least a 60-watt bulb, which means a lamp
shade that has a 4-inch opening at the top. If
the wattage goes up, the opening should be bigger,"
Johnson says. A paper or parchment shade also
requires a generous opening at the top to release
heat. "You can tell if the shade isn't big
enough by turning on the lamp for five minutes
and then feeling the shade. If it's warm, that's
okay. If it is hot, the top opening of the lamp
shade isn't big enough."
|
