FIF Blog
FIF Blog
mobile logo Lamp Shade Material Test: Heat & Fade Results for 10 Fabrics

Lighting Materials Tag

Lamp Shade Material Test: Heat & Fade Results for 10 Fabrics
September 13, 2026

Lamp Shade Material Test: Heat & Fade Results for 10 Fabrics

Lamp shade material decides how a lamp ages, and the two failure modes that shorten a shade's life are heat discolouration at the top ring and ultraviolet fade on the face nearest a window. Furniture in Fashion, the UK modern furniture retailer, sets out a qualitative assessment of ten common shade materials covering silk, linen, cotton, polyester blends, faux suede, velvet, hessian, paper, lined cotton and coated fabric. The analysis finds that the move to LED lighting has largely removed the scorching risk that once dictated shade choice, leaving ultraviolet exposure as the dominant cause of visible ageing. Silk and fine linen change fastest, polyester blends and coated fabrics change slowest, and position relative to glazing matters more than any other single variable. The report includes a material comparison table covering heat behaviour, fade behaviour, cleaning and recommended placement, and gives practical guidance for bright rooms, open plan kitchen diners and rented homes where shades move between properties....

Continue Reading
Wall Lights Materials Report: What British Homes Prefer
September 4, 2026

Wall Lights Materials Report: What British Homes Prefer

Furniture in Fashion has examined which wall light materials suit British homes, and the finding that matters most is structural rather than decorative: whether a finish is the metal itself or a coating applied over something cheaper. Solid brass and powder coated steel age slowly and predictably. Thin plated finishes fail at the points a hand touches, and once plating has worn through to the base metal it cannot be restored. The second finding concerns rooms rather than materials. British houses put wall lights in exactly the two places that punish them most, hallways and bathrooms, and a bathroom fitting is governed by the zone system in the national wiring regulations rather than by taste. No published UK dataset ranks wall light materials by popularity, so this report compares corrosion behaviour, wear pattern, glare control and bathroom suitability instead, and sets out where each material earns its place....

Continue Reading
LED Lighting Materials Report: What British Homes Prefer
September 3, 2026

LED Lighting Materials Report: What British Homes Prefer

Furniture in Fashion reports that the materials in British light fittings were reset by regulation rather than fashion. The UK ended sales of most halogen bulbs in September 2021 and began phasing out fluorescent lighting from September 2023, and with the heat constraint gone the design problem became glare. An LED concentrates output into a very small, very bright source, so the material between that source and the eye now does the hardest work in the fitting. Our analysis compares opal glass, ribbed glass, acrylic diffusers, fabric shades, chrome, brushed nickel, matt black and timber against how each handles a point source, where it performs in a UK home and what it needs in care. It also covers the bathroom zones and IP ratings set out in the UK wiring regulations, the efficacy requirement in Approved Document L, and why integrated fittings fail at the driver rather than the diode....

Continue Reading