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.

How to Select the Right Size Drum Lighting Fixture For Your Dining Room

One of our many specialties is providing innovative designs and solutions for residential drum lighting fixtures for dining room tables. Seascape Lamps has 30 years of experience in the manufacturing and production of drum lighting fixtures for dining room tables and for all rooms in your house or business. We also specialize in decorative drum lamp shades in all sizes and fabrics, as seen on our website.

When selecting the size and shape of your your drum lighting fixture, there are a few things to consider. The size of your room and table will dictate what size pendant lighting fixture you should order. Because Seascape makes all of their fabric lighting fixtures on-site, you can order just about any size that you want. Generally you want a fixture that is around half to a few inches bigger than the width of your table. So for example, if your table is 36 inches wide you would want drum lamp shade to be about 20 inches wide by around 9 to 10″ tall. All of our hanging light fixtures come with a white acrylic diffuser across the bottom at no extra charge so you’re not looking up into the bulbs. When deciding on size, we suggest locating an object around the house, like another lamp shade as a comparison; or maybe make a few cardboard cut-outs of several circles of varying diameters to get an idea of appropriate lamp size and scale above your table.

It is very important that your fixture is hung at the proper height and position. As a rule of thumb, you want to hang your pendant or drum lighting fixture at around 30″ above your table; although this rule can vary a few inches either way. The best thing to do is have someone hold the fixture above your table before you permanently install the light fixture. Sit down and look at it and then get up and stand in the dining room at different vantage points to make sure you like it in all positions. You definitely don’t want it so low that it gets in the way of your view of other guests across the table and you don’t want it so high that you and your guests can’t enjoy seeing the fixture and it becomes lost in the room.

A drum lighting fixture is just one of the shapes that you can pick from Seascape’s extensive library of shapes, for centering above your dining room table. The drum shape (our Thao hanging lamp) is one of our most popular shapes next to the narrow tall cylinder pendant light (our Lisha hanging lamp). Our fixtures offer more than just light; we consider them to be more like a functional artistic focal point of any room. Good lighting enhances the overall warmth and feeling of a room; it is a very important consideration when trying to set a mood and a design statement. And finally, we encourage you to make sure to have a dimmer switch installed on the wall so that you can control the brightness and balance of your finished overhead dining room lighting.

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.

Decorative Designer Lighting

Will Enhance Your Home Design Along With Functionality

First, you’ll need to decide what type of lighting fixtures and portable lamps you’ll need for each room in your house. Depending upon on the rooms and their functions, for example: the dining room, bedrooms, living room or den, you might want to consider having three different levels of lighting.

Three Different Levels of Lighting:

1. Mood / resting level,

2. Medium / entertaining level, and

3. Higher level / strong task lighting with some overhead. Regardless of the design – modern, contemporary or traditional – you’ll need to determine what your colors are and what the wattage output should be.

When using Seascape Lamps’ drum lighting fixtures, or any other shapes they make, we suggest that you start with the overhead lighting first. You’ll need to consider the diameter, height and wattage that you’ll need. The darker the fabric the less light the fixture will illuminate thorough the sides; light will be emitted mostly above and below the shade. If you do decide to use darker fabric, just be prepared to have in addition, good portable lamps and task lighting to help light the space. After you install your overhead lighting, you can then determine how many task lamps and portable lamps you’ll need to complete your lighting needs. Seascape lighting designers can help assist you with the appropriate fabrics, colors and wattage to make your rooms function on all three levels. For dining room lighting, the placement of your electrical outlets will dictate the type of lighting you’ll use. When using overhead lighting fixtures, it’s best to have them on dimmers so that you can adjust the lighting levels. You might also consider a few wall sconces if you have the outlets and the budget. It is also nice to have your wall lights on dimmers as well, to help create the mood you’re looking for.

Hopefully these tips will help you to create the ambiance, function and well-being that you deserve.