Drum shades can be used for table lamps and ceiling lights.
Drum light shades are lightweight cylindrical lampshades. The drum shade can be almost any diameter as long as the shade sides are far enough away from the lightbulb in the center to avoid being a fire hazard. Drum shades can adorn table lamps and ceiling lights alike. You can make your own low-cost drum shade for an existing ceiling light with leftovers from other projects and a few items from the craft shop and hardware store.
Instructions
Buying or Making the Drum Shade
1. Measure the diameter of the ceiling light fixture you want to cover with the drum shade and then decide how large you want the diameter of your drum shade. Make the drum shade at least a little larger than the fixture's existing globe.
2. Buy a drum shade in your desired diameter. Get a shade with a spider fitter framework on one edge of the drum. A spider fitter is an X-shaped wire frame with a metal cuff in the middle for mounting the shade on a light fixture.
3. Make a drum shade yourself using two embroidery hoops and some poster board. Cut the poster board to the width you want your shade and a length equal to the circumference of the inner hoops plus 2 inches. Glue the poster board to the inner hoops at the poster board's edges so the hoops become the framework. Glue the overlapping ends of the poster board together. Hold the poster board in place on the hoops with binder clips until the glue dries.
4. Trace a circle, using the drum shade as a guide, onto a piece of vellum or translucent paper or plastic. Cut the circle slightly smaller than the tracing so it fits inside of the bottom edge of the shade and rests on the bottom frame. This is the diffuser, which softens the light and hides the fixture inside.
Decorating the Drum Shade
5. Cut a rectangle of fabric, wallpaper or other decorative paper for your shade covering. If your covering is paper, cut the rectangle to the width of your shade and to a length equal to the circumference of the shade plus 2 inches. For fabric covering, add 2 inches to the shade height to determine the width of your rectangle.
6. Apply glue to the shade with a foam craft brush in an area 2 or 3 inches wide from top to bottom. Use decoupage glue for paper coverings and fabric glue for fabric coverings. Press the end of your covering into the glue. Line up the edges of a paper covering with the shade edges. Center a fabric covering on the shade so the excess extends past the top and bottom of the shade. Work your way around the shade until the entire shade is covered. Glue the overlapping ends with glue, turning the raw edges of a fabric covering under. Fold the excess fabric covering inside the shade on both edges and glue it down. Trim excess fabric close to the edge.
7. Dress up your drum shade by gluing buttons, sequins, rhinestones or other decorations at even intervals in a vertical line along the seam of the decorative covering. Glue ribbon or fringe along the top and bottom edges of the shade to give it a finished look. Glue cutouts or appliques on the shade to match the room's theme.
Hanging the Drum Shade
8. Remove the globe from the existing ceiling light. Mount your purchased shade on the ceiling light fixture by screwing a lamp coupler to the center rod of the light fixture. Screw on a nipple extender. Slide the cuff of the spider fitting over the extender and screw on a finial to hold it in place.
9. Mount your homemade shade by screwing eyelets into the top hoop of the shade in locations corresponding to the globe screw holes in the light fixture. Bend paperclips into S-hooks and use them to hook the eyelet screws inside the shade to the ceiling light fixture screw holes.
10. Bend the diffuser slightly and angle it up inside the bottom of the shade. When you release it, it will settle to the bottom and rest on the frame.
Tags: drum shade, light fixture, poster board, fabric covering, ceiling light, ceiling light fixture,