Lampshade Making: A Profitable New Service for Curtain and Blind Makers

Dannells Admin
1 day ago
4 min read

In today’s bespoke interiors market, curtain and blind makers have a golden opportunity to expand their services and increase profits. One simple yet effective way to do this is by adding lampshade making to your offering. It’s a natural fit for your existing skills and materials - and with Dannells high-quality Needcraft Lampshade Kits, getting started has never been easier.

The Growing Demand for Custom Home Décor

Today’s homeowners are more design-conscious than ever and as a result, there’s a growing demand for matching soft furnishings, from curtains and blinds to cushions and lampshades.

Offering lampshade making alongside your current soft furnishings service not only meets this demand but also gives your business a competitive edge. Better still when you can provide a complete home styling solution, you position yourself as a full-service soft furnishing specialist.

Why Lampshade Making Fits Perfectly with Your Existing Skills

As a curtain or blind maker, you already have the key skills needed for lampshade production: precise measuring, fabric handling, and attention to detail. The techniques are straightforward, and the learning curve is short.

With a Needcraft Lampshade Making Kit, you can create professional-quality shades without investing in expensive new equipment, in fact, you will already have the simple tools you need.

Each Dannells kit or pack comes complete with all materials - from the lampshade rings and self-adhesive professional backing to step-by-step instructions. They’re designed for beginners and professionals alike, making them ideal for testing the waters or training your team.

Once you’re confident, you can scale up production with a Needcraft Manufacturers Pack, which offer components in bulk at trade prices. This is perfect if you plan to add lampshades as a permanent part of your product range.

The Profit Potential

Lampshades are a high-margin item with low material costs. An individual 30cm drum Needcraft Lampshade Making Kit costs £14.58 (ex. VAT) or just £6.08 (ex. VAT) when buying a Manufacturers Pack but will retail for £40–£60, depending on the fabric and finish. When combined with your existing curtain or blind commissions, that’s a valuable upselling opportunity.

Customers love the convenience of ordering matching lampshades at the same time as their window dressings - and because you already have the fabric, there’s minimal extra preparation. It’s a simple way to add value and increase average order size.

An added bonus is turning leftover fabric offcuts into beautiful, sellable products - transforming waste into profit while offering customers something bespoke, or purchasing bespoke fabric, so your client can add accent colours to their scheme.

Also, by using Needcraft’s Manufacturers Packs, you can produce lampshades efficiently in batches, keeping costs low and margins high.

Getting Started with Lampshade Making

Starting out doesn’t require major changes to your workshop setup. You’ll need:

An individual Needcraft Lampshade Making Kit or Lampshade Manufacturing Pack
A woven fabric of yours or your client’s choice
A clean flat surface and a pair of fabric scissors

We provides lampshade kits in various shapes and sizes - drum, empire, oval, square, and more - so you can experiment and find what fits your clients’ needs best.

To build confidence, explore our YouTube tutorials or join the Dannells Lampshade Makers Facebook group for friendly advice and expert tips. Within a few hours, you’ll be ready to create your first professional-quality shade. Why not post a few examples photos on your social media or have some samples ready to show potential clients? They’re fantastic visual selling tools.

Real Makers, Real Results: How Others Are Expanding with Lampshades

Many curtain and blind professionals have already discovered how lampshade making can breathe new life into their businesses.

A great example is Ellen from Hillview, who was featured on the our Blog as part of their Meet the Maker series. Ellen began by using Needcraft’s lampshade kits to complement her made to measure curtain and blinds, and soon found that lampshades became one of her most popular offerings. By creating beautiful, coordinated interiors, she managed to not only delight her customers but also diversified her income streams.

"Shade making is a great add-on to my soft furnishings business. Quite often you will have enough leftovers to get a shade out of the waste - and offering this to my customers often goes down really well - they love that bespoke look of a shade to match. Sometimes when I mention shades to customers they will order more for other rooms - and add in a few cushions which together can refresh the look of a room on a relativity low budget."

Similarly, Lou of Lou’s Threads saw a gap in the market when several large department stores in her area - once the main source for lampshades - began to close down, leaving customers with fewer options. Drawing on her existing soft furnishing skills, Lou found lampshade making straightforward and rewarding.

“Being able to offer matching lampshades to complete room designs means I can offer a full package,” says Lou. “Clients really love choosing complementary fabrics for shades that tie in with their room design - and they love being able to update lamp bases they already have. It’s the finishing touch that completes a room.”

Both Ellen and Lou show how lampshade making can help curtain and blind makers strengthen their creative offering, meet customer demand for coordinated décor, and build a more resilient, profitable business. You can read more inspiring stories like theirs, here on the blog, in our Meet the Maker and curtain maker's posts.

Conclusion

For curtain and blind makers, lampshade making is a logical, creative, and profitable business expansion. As the largest UK supplier of lampshade making materials, we provide easy-to-use Lampshade Making Kits, cost-effective Manufacturers Packs, and ongoing tuition and inspiration through our YouTube Channel, blog and Facebook Group so you can add a new revenue stream without major investment.

By combining your existing soft furnishing skills with a few new techniques, you can offer clients fully coordinated interiors, reduce material waste, and boost your bottom line - all while doing something enjoyable and creative.

So why not make lampshade making your next bright idea? Your customers (and your profit margins) will thank you for it.