Glass lamp shades add a touch of style of sophistication that fabric lamps shades just can’t match. Unfortunately, they’re also very easily broken. From table lamps being pushed off a table, to floor lamps being knocked over, or even just glass cracking while a lamp is in storage, its very easy for your fragile lamp shades to be broken or damage in some way or another.

Finding replacement glass lamp shades can be extremely hard, especially if you don’t know what type of shade you have or know how to measure the shade correctly so you get the right type of glass. Luckily, it can be very easy to find the shades you need now. Many websites specialize in providing even the rarest antique glass lamp shades, so with some work you can find sites that will allow you to find the parts you need to bring your lamp back to working order.

How to Find the Glass Lamp Shade You Need

It can be confusing to find the exact size or style for your lamp. Some of them are very old, as is the case with antique art deco lamps, which commonly use glass shades.  First some basics. When you measure how big you want the glass to be, always take the measurement from outside edge to outside edge. You will look for glass the same size as your measurement. Glass is made undersized so if you measure four inches from outside edge to outside edge the glass will actually be slightly smaller than this, giving you the perfect fit.

Now, you need to figure out what kind of antique glass lamp shades you need. If you had a table lamp where the glass sat in a round ring or a tripod, you most likely need to buy what’s called student shade. To get the measurement, measure the diameter of the ring it sits in. But, if your table lamp has glass that sits on a ring with no screws, you need to buy something called a gone with the wind globe. The globe comes with a neck that sits on the ring and the ring should always be around four inches. Finally, if you know the glass had a flat opening with no neck, you should be looking for a neckless shade. Most of these have a standard one and five-eighths inch opening to fit an electrical socket.

Torchiere Glass Lamp Shades

Torchiere lamps are floor lamps that direct their light up towards the ceiling by using reflective glass.  These lamps, whose name comes from the French word for torch, provide great lighting for a room.  Instead of being concentrated in one area, the light bounces off the ceiling and is diffused through the room, lighting up a much larger area.

There are four basic types of torchiere glass.  The most common type is a dish.  This shade is shaped like a dish or bowl and has a standard one and five-eighths inch opening in the middle that slides over the electrical socket you screw the light into.  The second type of torchiere glass employs a reflector waffle pattern.  This is a cone shaped shade that most times has a waffle pattern in it.  It can come in two sizes and many times has a fabric shade sitting on top of it.  The final, and most expensive, type of replacement torchiere glass is long neck glass.  This is a large glass shade with a long neck that slides down into a holder.

There are many different kinds of glass lamp shades, ranging from antique to stained glass, and it can be difficult to find the exact one that will fit your lamp, particularly if you no longer are in possession of the lampshade so you don’t know what it looks like.  But, with a little detective work and some research online, you should be able to find the exact type of glass you need to bring your antique lamp back to life.