January by lamplight

I'm very pleased to be working from home on these chilly mornings; no need to scrape ice from the windscreen or check the antifreeze. It's been lovely over the past week to view the frost glinting in the sunlight from the comfort of my workroom. The only drawback is the heating bill and at present I'm in the unheated boxroom office which is decidedly cold, thank goodness for the cashmere fingerless gloves acquired in the M&S sale. Its comforting, then, to be surrounded by lamps with fabric shades casting a warm glow over proceedings.

I have quite a large collection of small wooden lamp bases all painted in my favourite F&B Old White eggshell and have been making shades to fit them. I had fun this morning photographing them in various locations although later I will have less fun removing them from random spots around the house.

I've added a fourth to the collection of pink Vichy shades; these 2 are almost identical and with very similar bases make a sweet pair for side tables or on the ends of a table or chest.

This pink shade is lovely for the slender proportions of this lamp

I've also made a pair of shades in a deep blue Vichy check; these make a nice mismatched pair with bases painted in Annie Sloan's matt paint and waxed.

These linen shades are identical and work well in most colour schemes.

I love the combination of modern glass base and retro linen shade; this red and cream example gives a lovely light.

This is another larger shade suitable for a large table lamp made from panels of my favourite red linen ticking.

I love this blue mangle cloth, very unusual to find blue on a beige cloth as they're more usually blue and cream. This shade did look well in my kitchen next to the blue grainsack covered armchair

We've just finished repainting our guestroom but the furniture is still crammed into an adjoining room where I took this image... like the rather formal beige linen striped shade on fluted base sitting on this little painted dressing table

This is a shape I like, almost a drum which sits well on this column lamp snapped in the newly painted bedroom.

A traditional scalloped edge shade is a good match for this old wooden lampbase. I use these wooden lamps teamed with linen shades to soften the lines of my modern kitchen and to give a soft glow in addition to the functional halogen bulbs.
I'm about to put this image and more on my blog shop..see link above or click http://www.shophellishdesigns.blogspot.com/ where you can buy shades with or without bases.

Off to find those abandoned lamps and measure them; why not try the pyschologically warming benefits of a softly lit lamp on a January afternoon