Mendai Medium Velvet & Linen Lampshade - Moss Green

The Mendai in moss green is a tapered drum in a deep olive velvet, lined in natural linen that shows as a pale band at the top rim. The washed cotton pile shifts between a dry khaki and a darker forest tone as the shade turns, and the seam runs as a single vertical line. This is the medium: 18.5cm tall and 30.5cm across.

Thirty centimetres is the width most ordinary table lamps are built around, so this is the size that will fit a lamp already in the room, and the colour is what makes it a decision rather than a replacement. A dark green shade takes a lamp out of the neutral register entirely: on a clear glass base it reads as a block of colour floating above nothing, and on pale wood it is the only strong tone in the piece. Most of the light leaves through the open ends rather than the velvet, so it lights a table well and the room around it hardly at all. It weighs 0.39kg.

The velvet and linen are stitched by hand over an iron frame, so the pile lies differently on each shade and the seam falls in its own place. The Mendai range runs from small to extra large in this moss green and again in a mocha. No bulb, base or fitting is included.

Is the medium right for a bedside lamp?

Usually. At 30.5cm across it covers an ordinary table lamp body without overhanging most bedside tables.

How dark is moss green?

A deep olive. It shows as green close to and reads nearer black from across a room, so it behaves like a dark shade rather than a coloured one.

Will it give much light?

Through the open top and bottom, yes. Through the velvet itself, very little, so it lights a surface rather than a room.

How do I care for it?

A soft bristle brush, a microfibre cloth or a lint roller for dust. No water on velvet. Handle it by the frame and keep it out of direct sunlight.