Sunday, January 27, 2008
lampshade dilemma
One of my January Jumpstart projects was reworking some lamps that my aunt bought back in the 1970s. I have no pictures right now, but I am very happy with my paint stripping efforts for the bases. The lamps needed new shades, and I found the perfect color and size at Ikea- the fun flocked Kivsta. The problem is, the Ikea shades have "slip uno" style fittings (there is a ring about 2/3 of the way down the shade that slips over the socket of an Ikea lamp base and is then secured with a plastic screw-on ring before the bulb is inserted) and my lamps have old-school harp fittings. Does anyone know how I can adapt the lamp to work with the shade? I'm replacing the sockets and wiring anyway, but I can't seem to find anything that explains if I need a different style of socket. The old sockets definitely wouldn't work because they are too narrow and just slip up into the ring on the shade fitting. Advice? Experience to share? Commiseration? I love these bases and I love these shades so I have to figure out how to make them work!
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4 comments:
If you explain your problem at a specialized lamp store, I believe there's an adapter you can put on the socket to make it accept a different style of shade.
I've dealt with this. There are adapters, like Wende said, that a decent lamp shop should be able to provide. And there's also a different style of socket with a wider lip. Since you're replacing the sockets anyway, go look at the different offerings at the wherever you're buying your lamp innards - if they carry the part you need, the difference will be obvious.
well, my local lamp store doesn't sell the adapters or sockets, though they did offer to handle the conversion for me. Since they wouldn't give me a price estimate, I think I'll be going the eBay route to get new sockets; I already have fun new silver cords from Home Depot. I'll post pictures if I ever sucessful complete this project!
Ikea type shades that slip half way down the socket will only work with that type of socket. Simply replace your standard existing metal socket with one that will fit the Ikea shade. There are no adapters to convert the Ikea type shade to a stadard washer type shade. I have heard that someone has designed an adapter for a ring type (standard American) shade to handle a slip adapter, but it is not readily available Only 35 years in the business.
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