Bespoke Lighting and Lampshades
Seen Around Town: Blanche Field Bespoke Lampshades and more…If you want something truly special, and uniquely yours, this is the place to get it!
As I was at the Boston Design Center this week sourcing fabrics for a project, I stopped into the Blanche Field showroom to snap pictures to add to THIS previous post on lampshades where I mentioned the company and how they got their start at the turn of the century.
The president, Mitchell Massey, was kind enough to give me a tour. It was fascinating…and like being a kid in a candy store…only with less calories and even more variety with inspiration in shapes, colors, textures, and design around every corner!
Just a few of the hundreds of ribbons and trims in the Blanche Field studio at the Boston Design Center
This hand smocked shade is impressive, but the star is the trim on the lower edge! Hand pleated from flat ribbon into this herringbone pattern.
So much artistry evident everywhere we looked in the sunny space on the south side of the third floor. The above lampshade was in the window and Mitchell told us that the trim on the lower edge starts life as a flat ribbon and is hand pleated into this herringbone pattern, resulting in a work of art that takes over 50 hours to create. As you might imagine, the price tag reflects the time, materials, and skill required to produce such a product. I knew they were THE national resource for gorgeous custom lampshades, but they also craft lamps and fixtures from unique client pieces and specifications!
This pair of silver leaf seahorse sculptures is about to become a pair of lamps with attention to creating a new base platform and shaped shade. The lamp stem will curve up the spine of the sculpture and hold a perfectly appointed shade at just the right height for a pair of unique and whimsical lamps.
This rectangular shade perched atop the case of trimmings, was crafted with an artful and unique recycled paper product lending a wonderful organic texture to the tailored shape of the piece.. Wouldn’t this make a fabulous shade for a rectangular dining table chandelier?
A pair of paper shades elegantly trimmed in bands of silver leaf
Stacks of shades are stored on chains hanging from overhead supports
The iron fixture hanging from the rolling rack was once a candelabra on a stand, but has been reimagined as a hanging fixture with some additional sparkle added in the form of a shower of flat round crystal embellishment. The iron fittings for the giant bell jar fixture were newly forged to copy a beloved antique.
Simple elegance abounds in this large-scale drum fixture. The outer layer of the double shade is deliberately unlined for translucence and the inner shade contains a diffuser on the bottom and understated button hardware.
The shade above looks deceptively simple, but is so finely crafted The unlined outer shade has expertly covered ribs both inside and out and a flawlessly smooth self-fabric trim on the upper and lower edges.
Mitchell holds a custom fabric covered pendant. See the PERFECTLY matched pattern at the seam? This is only one of the many details that make a flawlessly crafted Blanche P Field product.
A few samples of the hand smocked, pleated, trimmed and uniquely shaped shades at the showroom!
A stellar example of a perfectly matched lampshade and base! See how the custom lampshade is shaped to mimic the concave rectangle of the lamp base? And the detail of the coral trim on the edges of the shade that echo the coral design on the base? And how well balanced the size is? All important details that add up to a perfect pairing!
Click HERE for more information on the Blanche P Field company.
For more tips on matching lampshades to bases, check out THIS post. And now that you have created the perfect lamp, don’t ruin it with the wrong light bulb! Click HERE for our simple (and hilarious) chart to help you decide on the right light bulb for the job.