Customers come into Concord Lamp and Shade every day looking for a replacement lampshade. Ideally, the lamp requiring the new shade should accompany the customer – it makes for a much more single and successful trip to the store; without the lamp – or at least the exact dimensions of the existing lampshade, we are guessing at selecting a shade that will fit the lamp; my track record is not great without the lamp, but very often spot on with the lamp.

Lampshades are measured and sized using the diameters of the top and bottom as well as a side measurement:

A – the width across the top of the shade
B – the width across the bottom of the shade
C – the slant height down the side of the shade
D – the distance from the bottom of the shade to the washer in the center of the top ring (on most shades, this measurement is generally about 3/4” less than the height from the top of the shade to the bottom of the lampshade; however, on larger shades the washer is often recessed several inches)
The width across the bottom is also the “size” of the lampshade – an 8” lampshade or a 15” lampshade. The top dimension is important to the shape of the shade – it does not directly contribute to how the lampshade will fit the lamp.

Blog post is repurposed from the Concord Lamp & Shade blog. To discover lighting tips, trends, and more visit http://www.concordlampandshade.com/wp/blog