Our Story
- Kathy Whitham
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
I have always enjoyed working with different fabrics and had a variety available from clothing, pillows, and craft items. When we were first married and I was a stay at home mom, my first lampshade project was to decorate my daughter’s room. After this first project was completed, I began receiving requests for lampshades from friends and family members. My husband, Kelly, suggested that we should try selling lampshades to local antique stores. This caused us to begin receiving calls from people who saw our lampshades in various stores and place specific requests with us.
Once we became empty nesters, and with the encouragement and emotional support from our children, we quit our jobs (I was running a home daycare) to pursue creating lampshades full time. We then made a serious move from Colorado to Cincinnati, Ohio with the desire to expand our lampshade business. In 1994, we officially took the name Vintage Shades for our business. We began by taking our antique lamp shades to display at antique home shows while still selling our creations to shops. Our business began to flourish and grow.
In 2000 we moved to a small community in Iowa, this allows us easy travel to find beautiful material for our shades as we can reach either coast quite easily, we also found a home we truly love. The internet has really given us the opportunity to expand our business and sell our shades to a variety of customers. Not only do we continue to sell and create lampshades for clients seeking décor for their homes, we now sell to movie production companies, historic hotels, museums, restaurants, and clubs worldwide.
We have been making lampshades for over a quarter of a century. During this time we have found the best silk fabrics and trims to use, both new and antique. Kelly also now makes our wire frames which has allowed us to have truly limitless design potential. We can recreate old antique frames, work with ideas from our clients, or create our own original designs. Restoration of many wonderful old and original antique lampshades has also broadened our knowledge and inspires us as we create new shades.
We have learned so much about color, textures, and design over the years, and we have continually gained knowledge and experience with lampshades. This has caused us to continually have new excitement and inspiration for our lampshades. We love creating truly beautiful designs in a variety of styles like Victorian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Asian, and Edwardian.
Our philosophy when creating lampshades is “Too much is never enough.” We hope you take the time to look at our beautiful shades and please reach out to us if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your time!
Kathy
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