midcentury cone lampshades

• 8 inch top x 10 inch bottom x 12 inch height (other sizes are available)
• color: orange (other colors are available)
• pattern: combo arcs in white and gold

Shown is one example of a Meteor Lights medium-size cone lamp shade. The dimensions are 8″ top x 10″ bottom x 12″ height. Other cone shade dimensions are available. Our orange color is a rich, deep orange. We also make a brighter, more yellowish, tangerine color. We can make the shade to your own color specifications, as well

We’ve been asked why we don’t show a wider range of cone shapes and sizes on the Meteor Lights website, and there are several reason why we don’t. First, we specialize in the 1950s midcentury-modern style, and although cone shapes weren’t rare in the midcentury modern era, they weren’t as representative of the era as drum, tiered, and atomic shade shapes are. Cones are the “conventional” shade shape, and we aren’t trying to compete with Lamps Plus, Walmart, or Target, where you can find shelves full of cone shade styles. The big boys carry “fake” drum shades (where the sides are slightly angled), but they don’t carry true drum shades (where the sides are perpendicular to the top and bottom planes).

The only reason big stores don’t carry true shades is that the drum shade style poses a problem for the economy of scale that retail stores require: true drum shades simply don’t ship well. They can’t be stacked in a box like cone shades or fake drum shades, so they are inefficient to stock as a retail item (this is also why the retail stores carry a limited range of shade colors and patterns). New true drum shades (and tiered and atomic shapes) made from hand-stained fiberglass are therefore only available in boutique shops, in dedicated midcentury-modern and vintage stores, and directly through custom shade fabricators like Meteor Lights.

That said, cone shapes are still popular, because they are what we are accustomed to seeing on lamps, even though there is no design reason imperative mandating the cone shape. (retail economic imperatives unfortunately still dictate received aesthetics for most people). However, cone shapes present a challenge in that the extra third parameter makes for a nearly endless variety of shapes. True drum shapes have two parameters: diameter x height, because top and bottom diameters are the same on true drum shades. Cone shapes have three parameters: top diameter x bottom diameter x height. This makes for a seemingly endless range of shapes and sizes. Each cone shape requires a specific conic section template layout, and there’s little point in doing the labor the show the thousands of possible cone shapes, when we don’t know in advance which cone shape you want! So, we show a representative range of shapes and sizes, and if you don’t see what you are looking for, just ask us if we can do the specific shape (or something close) you are looking for.