Drum Lamp Shades – How to Select the Best

Some great choices for today’s contemporary eclectic home lighting are drum lamp shades in retro and modern prints. Or, for a more traditional look go for solid-color dupioni silks with their interesting slubs and textures. Here’s how we suggest you go about your selection.

1. 1. COLOR

   First of all, pick a proper color to go with your lamp base.  You can find a wide variety of colors on our website Seascapelamps.com.

   
   

   
   

2. 2. SHAPE

   Choose a suitable shape. We have empires, ovals, rectangular and square shades in addition to our drum shades. With drum lamp shades being the trend now, they add a modern contemporary look to your home interior. Drum shades are a great and versatile choice because they complement so many different types of bases that its hard to go wrong with this shape. Drum lamp shades have a have a wider diameter than their height; and the top and bottom are exactly the same width. Hard-backed drum shades are perfectly straight up and down with no curve to them. Cone or empire shades are tapered at either end, having a smaller diameter at the top or bottom.

   
   

3. 3. SIZE

   Size is the next consideration. We can assist you with picking the right size shade for your base if you give us a call. Let us know the shape, height, and color of your lamp base. If your shade is too wide or tall, it might look disproportionate to your base and even tip over if your base is light. A useful rule of thumb is that your shade should be wider than at least double the widest point of your lamp base. So if lamp base is 8”, for example, your shade might be 16” to 18” in diameter.  When ordering, think about how much light you want the shade to cast and pick a lighter or darker color depending on amount of light needed. Whether you want a soft light or a direct one, size and color should be considered for the best drum-shaped lampshade.

Another point to keep in mind is to see that the shade is the proper distance from the wall by calculating half of it’s diameter and adding a few inches so it won’t look too crowded. For example, if your shade is 16” wide, maybe place the lamp 10” away from the wall. And lastly, keep in mind that when ordering a shade, your existing harp may be too short or too tall and may need changing in order to keep the lamp in proper proportion. This is easily remedied by ordering a taller or shorter harp at minimal cost from either us or your local hardware or lighting center.

In the 50′s, drum shades were very popular and now decades later they have come back in vogue in a strong way. Drum lamp shades definitely have their advantages. They have the ability to direct lots of light from all directions as well as accept much higher bulb wattages because the larger diameter on the ends allow for heat to escape. They are our most popular lamp shade and are available in various designs and sizes on our website. Please make sure to call us 888-538-6514 if you have any questions determining the size, shape and color of your drum lamp shade.

Drum Lamp Shades

One of the most popular and eye catching lamp shades is the fabric drum shade.  Drum lamp shades have straight vertical sides and are typically much wider than a cylinder lamp shade. When paired with the right base and the proper proportions, a drum shade has an appealing effect on the overall look of your room. Nowadays drum shapes are found on most floor lamps and are particularly good for spreading a maximum amount of light compared to shades of other shapes. Most drum shades fit on top of a harp, which can be adjusted by buying a different size harp from any large hardware store or lighting showroom. Seascape has a wide variety of shades in several shapes: and we also make custom lamp shades using your specifications. Our most popular size shade is a 16″ diameter by 9″ high, which fits on most of today’s lamp bases.

Having been in business for the past 30 years, our selection includes solid-colored silk, wood veneer, fiber-textured and linen lamp shades. And for the past four years, Seascape has had a lot of success with custom printing lamp shades here in our California lighting studio, south of San Francisco. Choose from many print patterns and specially-made designer prints, including several black and white patterns, as well as selections in earth tones, blues and even a bright red offering. Our visually appealing shades start at around $40 and go up from there depending on size.

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Lamp shades can really do a lot to change the intensity of the look in a living space or a business. When you have just the right shade, a plain or out-dated lamp base can become transcended out of the ordinary into an interesting and enjoyable lamp.  It can brighten and liven up the whole room, making it look newer and cheery. Most people are so used to to the typical tapered, off-white or white shade that they don’t think about the benefits an attractive shade can offer.  So whether the best fit for a given condition is a drum lamp shade or a cylinder or an oval- shaped shade, it is well worth taking some time to explore the possibilities, especially the lamp shades here at Seascape Lamps.

Fabric and Texture Lamp Shades

When it comes to designer  drum fabric and texture lamp shades and other barrel shapes, Seascape has the competition beat by a mile. With our in-house graphics department, SL is able to create designer lamp shades and print them on their state of the art giclée printer. We have several hundred fabric designs on our website that you may choose from, all in a variety of different colors, or you may request specific colors that match your interior. Our graphics department can assist you with your design ideas or just take your ready-to-go files and print them on whatever size and shape fabric drum lamp shade you like.

If you’re not looking for prints, Seascape has a wide variety other designer fabric materials to choose from. We have a broad range of colors in dupioni silks, and if we don’t carry a specific color, we may be able to obtain it for you if you are ordering in quantity. We also have several neutral linen colors, as well as plant-fiber based materials in various neutral colors and wood veneers that we can stain in numerous colors.

When it comes to different shapes for your designer fabric lamp shade pendants, we can make hundreds of different sizes in several shapes. Quite popular are our designer fabric drum lamp shades, and the oval-shaped pendants, which are nice for over dining room tables. We also make long cylindrical shapes, which by themselves work well for over bars, or grouped in threes for over dining room tables and in foyers. And finally, we can do squares, which always add a nice dimension to any room, or rectangles, which are nice for over pool tables and long rectangular dining room tables.  Please visit our collections of Fabric and Texture Hanging Lamps.

Hotel Lobby Drum Lamp Shade Fixtures from Seascape Lamps

Seascape Lamps is here to report that the oversized hotel lobby drum lamp shade fixture is alive and well in 2010. SL has watched the popularity of their drum shade light fixtures rise since their inception of the look back in the mid-nineties. We have watched this phenomenon go from subtle interest to overwhelming demand. We can’t believe the way design has shifted in the last 15 years, it’s simply amazing to see, and a welcome change. The hotels and restaurants have done a 180 degree shift when it comes to updating their look. The design focus has changed because of the following: a younger audience, a demand for the W Hotel look (that was ahead of most hotels at the time) as well as much younger designers now doing the specifying for the Hospitality industry. Hotels and restaurants can’t afford to take a back seat to their competition when it comes to renovating their facilities. Even with this slow economy, SL has managed to grow in popularity and product development exploration. We view this down time as a vehicle in which to pass our competition with new and unique lighting ideas.

Seascape’s recommendation to designers and home owners is that they think of their lighting fixture shade as a blank canvas to begin figuring out what size and shape they want their lamp shade fixture to be. Then they figure what design they would like on that canvas. We have the capability to design custom printed fabric light fixtures which we do on-site here at our California lighting studio. We have a graphic design department that will work to help you achieve your design by implementing your graphics on fabric or we can create the design with your ideas. Along with printing, we also have a state of the art CNC machine that can cut out designs in your shade material, bringing a whole new spin to lighting for Seascape Lamps in 2010. Along with supple fabrics and wall papers, SL also works with acrylic, solid woods and brushed metals.

Enjoy all the benefits from purchasing your Seascape Lamps Hotel Lobby Drum Lamp Shade Fixtures.

Drum Lamp Shades from Seascape Lamps

Seascape first started bringing back retro drum lamp shades in the mid-nineties, for table lamps, floor lamps and drum light fixtures. There was absolutely no one making retro-style lamp shades for lamps or for hanging lamp shades because they were so bulky and hard to ship economically. The design world was simply not ready for this look and lighting retailers were dinosaurs when it came to experimenting with new looks. Seascape had only some success at a few of the gift shows until we decided to exhibit in 1998 at the Dallas Lighting Market Exhibit on the 4th floor. That’s when the interest started changing.

Now our hottest selling items that Seascape produces, are drum lamp shade lighting fixtures and replacement shades using custom printed fabrics and other unique materials like wood veneers, organic fiber-based materials, silks and linens. Along with the drum shape we also offer cylinders, ovals, squares, rectangles and cone lamp shades in a vast array of sizes and fabric choices. We sell hundreds of shades per month for table and floor lamps, for hanging lamps to the trade, for residential home lighting, hospitality lighting, retail light fixtures and for restaurant fixtures. In our 2010 catalog, we have introduced some scones and oval-shaped shades to give our customers more of a selection while creating a family of lighting products.

Drum Lamp Shades Slideshow

Staying in this country and manufacturing within the U.S. has given us the flexibility of making our custom lamp shades both in small quantities and in large volume. Where other companies have given up their production in this country to seek better pricing, Seascape has benefited by staying here and committing itself to better quality, faster ship times, and a courteous and helpful design staff. Enjoy the benefits from purchasing your seascape lamps drum lamp shades.