This post explains how I CONVERTED a pendant light to make it work with a spider lampshade.
This idea came to me when I was helping my friend with her guest room. The first thing I noticed was how small her pendant lights were on either side of the bed. See photo below. All other work STOPPED until I could solve this issue! Now I’m going to show you how to update pendant lights with lampshades.
We could have changed out the light fixtures altogether. Or maybe just replace the pendant shades with larger ones. However, most of the replacement pendant shades are so small ☹. And my friend didn’t have the budget for new larger light fixtures.
So ideas fluttered in. What if I could make regular lampshades work? I knew it might take some engineering.
If you’re interested in knowing the nerdy details please read on. If not, here’s your short cut for how to update standard pendant lights with lampshades: get a lampshade with an E27 Uno fitter OR turn a lamp harp upside down and use a spider lampshade. BUT the lamp harp will need an E27 adapter 🙂 The lamp harps I found come with E27 Uno adapters and the length of the harp is adjustable!
Part of the Process for How to Update Pendant Lights is Understanding the Anatomy of Lamps and Lampshades
Since I’m a lampshade enthusiast. I have studied the anatomy of lamps and shades. There are various adapters, converters, and reducers available. If you want to make a lampshade work – don’t give up! A good, comprehensive guide is here.
The Lampshade Fitting is the Most Important Factor for Figuring Out How to Update Pendant Lights with Lampshades
I admit, if you’re new to this topic of lampshades, it can be confusing. There are several important factors to each lampshade. But I don’t want to get too far into the woods. The most important factor is the “fitting”. The fitting on your lampshade has to match that of the lamp/light fixture. And if you have a mismatch situation it’s possible to convert either the lampshade or convert the light fixture to make them work together.
As you will see below, I did have to think outside the box with a solution I found on Amazon. But in the end, it was a simple fix. One that involved removing the lampshade ring on the light fixture. Not hard at all.
What is a Lampshade Ring? Which Way Does it Go?
Common U.S. pendant lights look like this below (left side). On the right side it shows a threaded socket with a detachable lampshade ring (the white ring at the bottom of the image). You unscrew the ring, slide the pendant shade (or pendant cage) onto the socket, then screw the lampshade ring back on to the socket to hold the shade in place.
(NOTE: the white lampshade ring in this particular photo is upside down, lol. It is much easier when you flip the ring the other way to give you access to the vertical grooves. With access to the grooves, you’re able to use the special tool {black thing shown below} to loosen and tighten these lampshade rings. If you look closely at the black thing, you can see it has inset grooves to match those on the lampshade ring.)
The Easiest Solution for How to Update Pendant Lights with Lampshades: If You Can Find Them
This part gets a bit technical. I’m so sorry about that. But if you try and find your own adapters, sizes matter.
Common U.S. pendant light sockets will work with an E27 Uno adapter. That’s because an E27 ring has an inside diameter of 1-9/16″. Whereas an E26 is slightly smaller and won’t work.
If you have access to IKEA lampshades, they already come with E27 Uno fitters. You can skip the rest of this and rejoice!
But IKEA is too far away from us. So of course, I turned to Amazon and started searching for E27 lampshades. All the lampshades with the E27 fitting were too small. (Don’t be fooled by the Amazon photos, read the dimensions!)
However, as I searched Amazon for E27 lampshades, I found these lamp HARPS that come with several harp saddles. And an E27 Uno adapter was included! Please see the photo below, its #6.
The Back Up Solution for How to Update Pendant Lights with Lampshades: Easy Peasy
Seeing all these lamp harps with the E27 Uno adapters got me to thinking. Perhaps I could convert these pendant lights by using a harp saddle with an upside down harp. Then I would be able to use lampshades with spider fittings.
I could hardly wait for them to arrive. I wanted to test out my plan. It worked!!
In the next photo you can see the simple STANDARD installation process.
However, in the following photos you can see MY upside down solution! (By the way, the little bell-shaped covers won’t stay in place because this is turned upside down. But that wasn’t a problem with these lamp harps since the tension on the harp made it stay in the harp saddle.)
And please also notice the lampshade ring is installed properly so there’s access to the vertical grooves 😉
The spider-style lampshade (the type that requires a lamp finial) is the most common in the U.S. (in my opinion). Which means retailers carry lots of options. So we were able to easily find big shades to work. Here’s the final look!
These adjustable lamp harps solved the problem and opened us up to many more lampshade choices. And the fact these lamp harps adjust in height (or length if used upside down 😊) is a plus! They go from 7” to 10” using a Philips screwdriver. Genius! And did I mention they come in a 2-pack?
Now we can start to focus on other updates in my friend’s room. Like the bed!
Materials Used
Tools Used
Philips screwdriver
Take Away
There is always another way! Don’t give up too soon. If you end up getting stuck, ask a friend. Or ask me. Surely we can find a solution.
Here’s to flipping things upside down and Making it Fabulous!
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