Victorian Lamp Shades

I've found a new passion...............Victorian Lamp Shades.

These beauties are very unique in that no two hand-made ones are exactly alike. Back in the day, you would employ a lampshade maker to fashion one specifically for your lamp and it would be a true work of art. There are very few lampshade makers left today as, sadly, it is another of the Victorian Arts that are rapidly passing away.

The Victorian Parlor really needed a couple of lamp shades that befitted its turn of the century demeanor. After seeing the price of having one made (WOW), I decided to try my hand at it. Well........

.....here is the result.


This particular shade has eight petals and eight of those diamond shaped inserts. I chose the same damask fabric that covers the footstool and side table for the petals, but they seemed too bright so I put a silk chiffon over four of the petals to soften them a bit. The diamonds are lined with black silk and covered in lace rosettes.

Side view.........


Can you see the rosettes? This is finished off with yards and yards of gimp and some glass beaded fringe. Here it is lit up. It really matches the wall color quite well, even when lighted.


This table lamp shade was my first attempt. It is made from the bodice of a vintage bridal gown and is a hand embroidered and beaded ivory satin. I dyed the gimp and fringe (which I LOVE) to match the outline thread on the embroidery. This is a six petal shade and is adorned with acrylic beads, too.


It is on the vintage lamp that sits on my desk. If you look back at the original Parlor photos, you will see this once had a lace shade on it. I like this better and the embroidery shows very well when lit up, too. The soft glow of the shade is due to the silk lining. Without the lining, you would see the outline of the bulb.


After completing these two shades, I decided that those who hand sew these (as they should be) earn every cent of the hundreds of dollars that they are forced to charge for them. They are very labor intensive!!

First, the entire shade frame must be wrapped in ribbon. Then, it took me over 16 hours of hand stitching to do the floor lamp shade and about 12 hours for the desk lamp shade. Each shade is made from several layers of fabrics all hand stitched individually. In the floor lamp, there are 25 fabric panels to sew on one at a time.

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my new passion. Now I'm looking at every lamp in a different light (pun intended) to see if it needs a Victorian Shade.

Click to enlarge any photo but please do not copy without permission. I gladly give it for a good reason. Thanks!

The Winner....

.... of the magazine subscription to Old House Journal is....

Shirl of Shirl's Rose Cottage.

I know that Shirl will enjoy this as she, too, lives in an old farmhouse.

I'll be having lots of giveaways in the future so be sure to check back often.

Once in a Lifetime Offer......

Wouldn't you love to live here???


I have subscribed to this magazine for a long time now. It has wonderful articles on the "bones" of old homes and has been a valuable resource in our restoration of this circa 1848 house and the cottage. This particular issue shows how to rebuild your old stained glass windows and even shows how to make the glass look old.

Over the years, I have used many of the articles to help me fix horsehair plaster, repair a window sill that has rotted over time, seal an old door from the weather, fix a wood floor that had fire damage and repair copper gutters.

I am offering a free one-year subscription to one person that comments on this post. If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please post your interest in the comments section.

Until next time.........

We Have a WINNER!!!

Yesterday my granddaughter pulled a name from the hat (bowl) and the winner is..........

KIM of the Victorian Parlor!!!

I think Kim visited every Parlor post!

Congratulations, KIM!! Please send me your mailing address so I can ship these treasures off to you immediately.

Thanks to all of you that entered my Parlor Post give away! This was such fun that I think I'll have a few more in the future.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for more posts on Victorian living and decorating inspirations. I have big plans for the living room sometime this winter, but you never know what I will be sharing next.



Love this place!!! Don't you??

A Victorian Give Away...

I thought I'd give you one more chance to sign up and closer photos of the Victorian gifts for the drawing on November 1st.

The cute little shade is from Aunt May's Cottage and is ivory lined in white.

I didn't want anyone to think that you had to have MY ancestors, so I've chosen one of my favorite graphics of a sweet young lady in a pale pink dress for the soft gold 5 X 7 Victorian frame.



It was a very big deal to have your photo taken back then and many folks were lucky to have had one sitting in their entire lifetime. After the turn of the century, photography was not such a science and there were more opportunities for photo shoots as cameras became easier (and safer) to use.

The Victorian ladies loved to craft something wonderful out of every photo that they could get their hands on, so I've included a Shadow Box frame.


This particular shadowbox is not very deep, but there is enough room for a small painting, a little golden gimp braid around the edge and a piece of red velvet to duplicate the shawl worn by the regal looking lady in the painting. Note the small piece of vintage jewelry also inside the frame. The winner can, of course, remove all of these visuals inside the frames and substitute their ancestors instead.

More on Victorian decorating in the next post......