Octagonal lampshades form an often useful “bridge” between your round empire or bell lampshade to a “shape”. With eight unique sides – sometimes of equal size, sometimes 2 sets of 4 sides the same – the octagonal lampshade offers “softer” edges or corners than the hexagonal or square / rectangular lampshades.
We will most often suggest an octagonal lampshade in one of two situations. The first is when presented with a lamp that has been dressed with a cylindrical lampshade for the last 40-50 years, and our customer wants to make a change, or “update” the look ….. sort of – but is so used to looking at the long cylinder they might not want to make a dramatic change! In that instance, I will often offer as an option the “Fancy Octagon” lampshade.
The Fancy Octagon is available only as a silk lampshade and only in the larger sizes – 14” and above. This lampshade is relatively long for its size (eg, an 18” shade is 15.5” long, whereas you standard 18” empire lampshade is 13” tall), and also offers a slightly belled shape. It can look very nice on some of the old and wonderful brass Stiffel lamps we see in the store looking for a new lampshade.
A close rendition of the Fancy Octagon is the Modified Fancy Octagon. The dimensions of the modified FO are much closer to the standard dimensions of the empires or bells in a similar size. Further, the bell shape of the modified FO is more exaggerated than is the case with the Fancy Octagon.
Another octagonal lampshade we keep in stock – particularly in the larger sizes – is the Octagonal Coolie lampshade. The Octagonal Coolie is a wonderful lampshade to use on a large round oriental style ceramic. It is often a more interesting choice than the coolie lampshade – but still offers the general short and wide shape characteristic of the coolie style.
Yet another style of the octagonal lampshade is the straight sided octagon. Pictured below on a tall blue and white oriental lamp, this custom made and trimmed deep octagon lampshade is a perfect complement to this very interesting lamp!
Some of our customers enjoy silk lampshades that offer a “gallery” feature – the straight banding or detail at the bottom of a lampshade, following the shape of the lamp, but set off by a wire and piping or other special trim treatments. Pictured below is a round top outscallop octagonal bottom lampshade with a gallery.
The octagon lampshades provide just another opportunity to set off your lamp in a special way!
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