How to Measure a Floor Lamp Shade for Replacement

To measure a floor lamp shade for a replacement, write down seven things: the fitter type and the size of its opening, the top diameter and the bottom diameter across the outside rims, the slant height along the side, the vertical height straight down, and the drop from the fitter ring to the bottom rim. The first two are fixed by the lamp and decide whether a shade bought on its own will go on at all. The other five are what the shade is sold by. Measure the old shade if you still have it; if it is gone, the lamp itself gives you the fitter, the holder height and the reach, and this guide shows how to get the rest from those.

This guide is about the shade as a part. For how tall the whole lamp should be under a 2.4m ceiling and which shade diameter suits a lounge, use our floor lamp sizing guide. For what an arc lamp's width and reach figures mean for the floor space it needs, the arc reach guide. For the globe that goes inside, the bulb temperature guide.

Step one: find out whether the shade is a part or the lamp's head

Turn the lamp off, let the globe cool, and look up into the shade. What you see at the top decides everything that follows.

Ring fitter (also called a collar, Euro or E27 ring fitter). The shade has a metal ring at its centre, usually on three or four wire arms (a spider). That ring drops over the threaded collar of the lamp holder and a ring nut screws down on top of it. Unscrew the nut and the shade lifts off. Every fabric shade we sell sits on one of these: the Rousseau's brass ring nut on a four arm spider, the Chandelle's white retaining ring inside the column, the Marceau and Flore's spiders, the Aurelia's collar at the apex of its cone. The number that matters is the diameter of the opening in the shade's ring, which has to match the collar. Measure yours with a ruler to the millimetre rather than trusting a size name: on E27 holders the common opening is about 40 to 42mm, on the smaller E14 holders about 28 to 30mm, and a shade cut for one will not sit on the other.

Harp and spider. A wire harp stands up and over the globe from the holder, the shade's centre washer sits on the harp's threaded tip, and a finial screws it down. You will meet this on older lamps and on a lot of imported table lamps. The shade's washer has a small hole, around 10mm, so a harp shade will not sit on a ring collar without an adapter, and a ring shade has nothing to hold it on a harp. If your lamp has a harp, record the harp height (the distance from the holder saddle to the tip) as well, because a taller shade usually needs a taller harp to keep the globe hidden. None of our floor lamps use a harp.

Integral head. A metal dome, a glass lantern, a wire cage or a metal globe has no ring and no harp: the holder is fixed inside it and the shade is the lamp. On the Orsay the gold dome hangs from the end of the arc with the holder cup sitting just above it, with a small clearance left on purpose so the finish is not scratched in assembly. On the Cosmo the chrome dome has the holder inside it. On the Solara the fluted glass sits straight in the holder collar, and on the Voltaire each cage threads onto its own holder. If one of these is damaged, you are looking for a part from the maker or at the lamp as a whole, and no amount of measuring turns it into a shade order. We say so plainly in the range table below.

Step two: the seven measurements

1. Fitter type and opening. Ring, harp or integral, from step one. For a ring, measure the inside diameter of the ring on the old shade, or the outside diameter of the threaded collar on the lamp, in millimetres. Write both if you can. For a harp, measure the harp height from the saddle to the tip.
2. Top diameter, T. Straight across the top rim, outside edge to outside edge, through the centre. On a drum this equals the bottom. On a cone it is the small end; on a pleated cone like the Aurelia the top is only the opening the collar passes through, a few centimetres.
3. Bottom diameter, B. The same, across the bottom rim. If the old shade is crushed, measure the rim wire rather than the fabric, and measure twice at right angles and take the larger figure.
4. Slant height, S. Along the side of the shade from top rim to bottom rim, following the fabric. This is the height most sellers list for a cone, because it is the length of fabric. On a drum it is simply the height.
5. Vertical height, V. Straight down from the plane of the top rim to the plane of the bottom rim, with the shade standing on a table. For a drum V equals S. For a cone V is shorter: V is the square root of S squared minus half the difference of the diameters squared. The Vienna's 23 by 30 by 22.3 gives V of 22.0; the Aurelia's 34cm cone with a 21.5cm slant gives about 15.5. V is the number that tells you whether the globe will show.
6. Drop, D. From the fitter ring down to the bottom rim. On most drums the ring sits level with the top, so D equals V; on a recessed ring it is less, and on a shade with the ring sitting proud of the top it is more. D sets where the bottom rim ends up on the lamp, which is the line your eye meets from a chair.
7. Where the ring sits on the lamp. With the shade off, measure from the floor to the holder collar. Your new rim height is that figure minus the new shade's drop. On the Rousseau the collar is about 154cm up; on the Chandelle it is inside the column, roughly 140cm up, so a 40cm column with the ring a third of the way up puts the top at 167cm and the bottom at 127cm.

Write them on one line in the order a seller reads them: fitter and opening, then T by B by S, then V and D. A 30 by 30 by 18 drum on a 40mm ring, V 18, D 18, is a complete order. A 23 by 30 by 22.3 cone on a 40mm ring, V 22, D 22, is a complete order. "A medium cream one" is not.

Record sheet	Your figure
1. Fitter type (ring / harp / integral) and opening in mm
2. Top diameter T (cm, outside rim)
3. Bottom diameter B (cm, outside rim)
4. Slant height S (cm, along the side)
5. Vertical height V (cm, straight down)
6. Drop D (cm, ring to bottom rim)
7. Collar height off the floor on the lamp (cm)

Copy the seven lines into your notes. Rows 1 and 7 come from the lamp; rows 2 to 6 from the old shade, or from the replacement you are considering.

Step three: four checks before you order

1. The fitter matches. A ring shade needs a ring collar of the same opening; a harp shade needs a harp. Adapters exist in both directions, but they add a centimetre or two of height and often sit the shade slightly off centre, so the better answer is the matching fitter.

2. The globe stays hidden. Fit the globe you will actually use, then measure from the collar to the tip of the globe. The new shade's drop has to be at least that figure plus 2 to 3cm, or the globe tip will show below the rim from a seated position, which on a floor lamp is exactly where you look at it. A low energy LED in the E27 holder every lamp in our range takes is usually 10 to 12cm long from the collar, so a drop under 13cm shows the globe on most lamps. The sewing and reading guides both found that the open bottom of a shade wants to sit above seated eye height, around 117cm, for the same reason.

3. The new rim height still suits the room. Collar height minus drop gives the new rim. Compare it with the 2.4m ceiling rule in the sizing guide and with the height of whatever the lamp stands beside: a rim that was 134cm beside a 75cm sofa back is fine at 129cm and a little low at 119cm, where it starts to sit in the line of sight of someone standing across the room.

4. The width clears the pole and the wall. On a straight lamp like the Chandelle the pole runs up the middle, so any diameter clears it. On a bridge arm or an arc the shade hangs beside the pole, and half the new bottom diameter has to be less than the arm's reach from pole centre to shade centre or the shade touches the pole. The Rousseau's arm reaches about 26cm, so a drum wider than about 50cm hits it; the Marceau's about 20cm, so about 40cm is its limit. Against a wall, the lamp's base has to move out by half the extra diameter.

Our range, measured

We took the factory dimension drawing for every lamp we sell, the shade dimensions each product page lists, and the photos taken from below and above each shade, and read them side by side. Diameters are across the outside of the rims. Heights are as the drawings label them: straight for drums and columns, along the slope for the two cones, with the vertical worked out alongside. The last column is the honest answer to the question this guide is for.

Lamp	Shade	Top Ø (cm)	Bottom Ø (cm)	Height (cm)	Fitter we found	Replacement
Chandelle Linen Column in stock	linen column	16	16	40 (V = S)	ring on the E27 collar, white retaining ring, holder about a third of the way up the column	Swap: yes. Keep the diameter; a shorter column shows the globe.
Rousseau Rattan Weave in stock	weave band over a linen drum	32	32	15 band, 20 drop to the inner rim	four arm spider on the collar, brass ring nut, at the top of the shade	Swap: yes, but the weave and the inner drum are one part.
Aurelia Pleated Fabric in stock	pleated cone	small apex opening	34	21.5 slant, about 15.5 vertical	collar at the apex on the gooseneck, no harp	Swap: yes in principle. It is tilted, so a heavier cone changes the balance.
Orsay Gold Arc in stock	gold metal dome	none	25	11.5	none: the dome is the head; the holder cup sits above it with a small clearance by design	Not a swap.
Cosmo Chrome Marble Base in stock	chrome metal dome	none	30	about 15 (half dome)	none: holder inside the dome	Not a swap.
Solara Fluted Lantern in stock	fluted glass lantern	none	15	15	glass sits in the holder collar	Not a swap for a fabric shade.
Voltaire 3 Light Cage in stock	three wire cages	none	13	15 each	each cage threads onto its holder	Not a swap.
Marceau Linen Drum pre-order	linen drum	30	30	18	spider on the collar, ring nut, under the downbridge arm	Swap: yes. The plainest case in the range.
Flore Black Arc pre-order	linen drum, packed separately	40	40	22.5	spider on the collar, ring nut, at the end of the arc	Swap: yes.
Vienna Brass Marble Base pre-order	tapered linen	23	30	22.3 slant, 22.0 vertical	collar on a short drop under the adjustable arm	Swap: yes. Measure both diameters.
Trilogy 3 Light pre-order	three linen drums	23	23	18 each	each drum on its own pendant style drop	Swap: yes, three at once to match.
Saturne Black Globe Arc pre-order	metal globe, open bottom	none	23	18	none: the globe is the head	Not a swap.
Camille Amber Petal Glass pre-order	pressed glass petal with inner diffuser	none	24.5	9.7	glass held at the holder	Not a swap.

Pre-order lamps are listed because their shades are the same parts whether or not the lamp is in stock today. The ring opening on our holders was not measured for this guide; measure the collar on your own lamp before ordering a shade, as above.

Three of the swappable ones are in stock as this is written, and they make three different cases.

A worked example: the Rousseau with a different drum

Say the paper rope band has been damaged and you want a plain linen drum instead. The lamp gives you row 1 and row 7 of the sheet: a ring fitter on the E27 collar, about 154cm off the floor. The current shade gives you the rest: 32 top, 32 bottom, 15 band with the inner drum 20 below the ring, so D is 20 and the rim sits at 134cm.

Check 2: a 10 to 12cm LED from the collar needs a drop of at least 13 to 15cm, so a 15cm drum is the shortest that hides the globe, and a 20cm drum is comfortable. Check 3: a 20cm drop keeps the rim at 134cm, a 25cm drum lowers it to 129cm, which still clears a sofa back and seated eye height; a 30cm drum takes it to 124cm, which is where the rim starts to sit in a standing person's line of sight from across the room. Check 4: the arm reaches about 26cm, so the bottom diameter has to stay under about 50cm; 30 to 40cm looks right on a 25cm base and keeps the base where it is. The order is a 35 by 35 by 20 drum on a ring to match the collar, V 20, D 20, and the lamp reads the same height it does today.

When the shade is the lamp's head

Four of the seven lamps we have in stock today, the Orsay, the Cosmo, the Solara and the Voltaire, have no shade to measure in this sense. If a dome is dented, a glass lantern is chipped or a cage is bent, write to us with the order number and a photo and we will tell you whether the part is available, and if not, what the lamp as a whole costs to put right. We would rather say that here than have you measure a dome, buy a 30cm drum and discover there is nothing to hang it from.

The same logic runs the other way when you are choosing a new lamp. If you expect to change the look of the room in a few years, or you have a cat, a ring fitter lamp is the one whose shade you can replace for the price of a shade: the Chandelle, the Rousseau and the Aurelia today, the Marceau, Flore, Vienna and Trilogy when they land. If you want the dome or the lantern, know that you are buying the head with the lamp. Neither is wrong; it is just worth deciding on purpose.

The limits of this guide

The fitter openings quoted are the common ones, not a measurement of our holders; we tell you to measure the collar because that is the only number that will not let you down. The swap verdicts are about whether a shade bought on its own will physically go on; they are not a promise that any shade will look right, which is a question of proportion and the finish of the lamp. The Aurelia's apex opening is read off the factory drawing, not measured with calipers. And a column shade like the Chandelle's is a less common size than a drum, so expect fewer off the shelf options at 16cm.

Frequently asked questions

Written by the C&F Creation Team. Figures: the factory dimension drawing, the listed shade dimensions and the underside and top view photos of each of our 13 floor lamps, read together on 10 October 2026.