Meet the Maker - Nana Robin Designs

Dannells Admin
23 minutes ago
8 min read

Driven by her love of interiors, Naomi - the creative force behind Nana Robin Designs - has grown her lampshade making and soft furnishings business from a small side hustle into a thriving creative enterprise. By steadily developing her lampshade-making skills, Naomi now creates a distinctive collection of beautifully crafted soft and hard lampshades that feel both timeless and contemporary, for her website as well as through bespoke commissions for clients’ homes.

Alongside honing her craft, Naomi has immersed herself in local and national craft networks, building meaningful connections with fellow makers and gaining invaluable insight and support, which continues to play an important role in the ongoing success and growth of Nana Robin Designs.

Read on to find more about Naomi’s lampshade making journey in the month's Meet the Maker.

Hi Naomi!

How are you today and what’s on your workbench?

After ringing in the new year it feels great to be back at it. The first order on my workbench are two gorgeous soft pleated French drum shades with a modern Indian block print fabric and a pretty trim to bring the lampshade design scheme together. A great way to kick off 2026!

How do you start the design process and where do you get your design inspiration?

When a client contacts us to discuss their design ideas, we will have an in-depth design scheme discussion and we can narrow down what they are looking to achieve and the styles they feel would be best suited. More often than not this will result in a full review of their soft furnishing needs and a colour consult to bring the whole design scheme together.

My inspiration for the designs comes from getting a feel for the style of property my client lives in, their design preference’s and the lighting and soft furnishing requirements that they are looking to achieve. If the client is not living local I will ask them to send through images of the room/s and that greatly assists me in my design proposal.

We also work directly with interior design professionals who are always upfront with their client’s design brief which most definitely assists in speeding up the process as in most cases choices have already been agreed upon.

I love to create my own designs which I sell on our website and these are inspired by timeless designs with a contemporary twist. There is such an amazing offerings of lampshade frame styles and stunning selection of fabrics and trims that we can work with now, I often feel like a kid in a sweet shop deciding on what I want to create next.

How would you describe your style?

Whilst my lampshade making skill set is very much through traditional methods, I class my designs as contemporary, and I like to work with a lot of natural linens/cottons and block print cottons.

When and why did you start making lampshades?

I started making lampshades around 10 years ago, it was from renovating my own home and looking for bespoke lampshade designs as timeless pieces that I saw an opportunity to start making them. From a young age I have always been very creative which I indulged in alongside my former main career in Retail Banking and over the years attended many soft furnishing courses which inspired me to hand make lampshades and soft furnishings as a cottage industry for my family and friends, and ultimately lead to establishing my business Nana Robin Designs.

How did you develop your lampshade making skills?

I am self taught with both rigid and soft lampshades designs, however there is a very different set of skills needed for both. I had originally planned on attending a soft lampshade workshop in London however we went into lockdown and so with a little extra time on my hands I took the opportunity and went old school and ordered a soft lampshade teaching textbook and learned all the different methods/styles and took the time to hone my craft during this time.

I think if you have the ability to learn the basics of sewing (I have attended workshops in the past), are good with your hands and are willing to expand your knowledge and skill set, it opens up the opportunities of what you can hand make and further your offerings to your clients.

What’s your favourite part of the lampshade making process?

It’s rare for me to make multiples of one lampshade design, so I love that the majority of the lampshades I make are one offs and won’t be replicated. It’s a great feeling delivering a client’s lampshade/s knowing that they are handmade uniquely for them only.

As you make both rigid and soft shades, do you follow trends, or do you just go with your instinct on what style of lampshade will sell?

I started off with making rigid shades at first, they are a lot more simpler to make and for anyone looking to start their lampshade making career I would recommend to master these before moving on to the soft shades.

As time went on there seemed to be a resurgence of soft shades and along with this I had also built up a surplus of left over fabric pieces from past projects that were too small to use for other soft furnishing projects and I most definitely did not want to add to the already worrisome situation of landfill. When I started my research on soft shade making I realised that you can use smaller quantities of fabric to make them so it was a no brainer to expand my expertise and start offering these as part of my portfolio. I think I can safely say it was the best move I made to date as it’s one of my top selling products, and also meeting sustainability criteria by re-purposing excess fabric, it’s a win-win.

In your online shop what’s your most popular selling shade?

For the rigid shades, clients adore the scallop edge shades and they really are so much fun to make, I love the different designs and pretty trims I get to use. The best selling soft shades have to be the French drum, clients love the simplicity of them and it’s a timeless style frame to work with.

What’s the mix of shades you make to sell online versus lampshade commissions, as part of your business?

I like to offer all styles and designs of shades through my online website as it showcases what we offer and most definitely assists in new clients making the initial contact as they have some inspiration to kick start their design process.

In relation to commissions the last year has shown a popularity towards the soft shades, however with the introduction of the scallop edge shades they have become a close second.

What other products can we find at Nana Robin?

As well as the lampshades we offer beautiful wood lamp bases, lampshade accessories, hand made Roman blinds, cushions, French memo boards, bunting, table cloths, table runners, baby blankets, eye pillows, lavender pillow stacks.

Can you tell us more about your involvement with the Dublin South City Partnership, Design and Crafts Council Ireland and Crafting Europe and how this has supported your business?

I feel very lucky to be part of the Design and Craft movement within Ireland, as part of the Design and Craft Council of Ireland and delighted to be part of the Crafting Europe programme which has provided a wonderful network of fellow Crafters, Designers and Artists. It may be challenging times for small businesses but it’s still very exciting times ahead.

I have also received amazing support from Dublin South City Partnership since the initiation of my business, what can be a lonely path as a solopreneur has been made a very enjoyable journey. They offer ongoing networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs across all sectors, sharing our experiences, coaching, business advice and providing a positive and safe space to connect. I have made some wonderful connections since 2019 and always enjoy attending their events, they are a super team of people who go above and beyond to help people establish, build and sustain their businesses.

Any tips for new lampshade makers in business?

If you are thinking about venturing into the lampshade business, I would most definitely reach out to fellow nearby crafters, there are plenty of us out there and we are a friendly bunch, so don’t hesitate to get in contact and pick our brains about what it’s like to run this type of business.

I would also advise that if you are serious about setting up a business, once you have learned the skills to make the lampshades it would also be beneficial to attend a local start your own business workshop as it can be overwhelming juggling all aspects of running a business. We have to wear multiple hats and we all have our strengths and weaknesses so it’s important to have a solid foundation in place if you are hoping for this to be your main income stream.

I also think it’s super important to mention that some of our best work can be born from invaluable prior mistakes, so be kind to yourself, you are only human after all!

Nana Robin Designs has a clear sustainable ethos. How do you build this into the day to day running of your business?

Sustainability is very much at the forefront of our mind and we aim to recycle, reuse and up-cycle at every opportunity. We can use fabric a client may have at home to make lampshades and soft furnishings, we can even re-purpose existing soft furnishings. A recent example with our client she had two table cloths and loved the fabric design but had no use for them, so we turned them into cushions and a footstool cover and she was delighted to up-cycle the fabric.

We also aim to use sustainable packaging for our products and re-use packaging we have received. We seek to obtain surplus fabrics that are often overlooked and prevent them ending in landfill, as the Textile industry is known to impact and create huge environmental issues, we can all do our own little bit and be eco-conscious in running a business and ethically transparent in our product offerings.

When are you at your most productive?

Morning time is when I’m at my most productive and I’m at my happiest listening to some music and being in the zone of making. However, I often find in the quiet of the late evening time is when my mind is creative and thinking up new designs.

And your favourite sustenance when you’re working?

Ohh most definitely a good coffee to wake the body up and get busy!

Could you let us take a peek at your workspace and tell us more about it?

I have always worked from home, it gives me lots of flexibility and thankfully I have the work space I need for my creativity. I have explored a co-working office space but none have taken my attention to date, so for now being based at home works very well for me.

Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

Gosh to think that my journey started around 10 years ago very much as a side hustle and here I am thinking about the next 10 years. I believe if I can keep building on my brand, making many more client’s happy, open up to further collaborations, and if I can look back in 10 years to see that I am still enjoying the journey, that’s a huge achievement.

What have you learned that’s been invaluable to your creative process?

What has made this a more enjoyable and beneficial process is surrounding myself with fellow like minded entrepreneurs who are all inspirational to be around. We may all be walking our own individual paths but we share the same common goals and there’s nothing better than networking, sharing and learning amongst each other.

Any future plans for your business that you would like to share?

Nana Robin Designs will be showcasing our lampshades at our first Trade Show ‘Design Source’ at the RDS in Dublin this coming March. We are very excited to be involved in a collaboration with other amazing creatives and I am really looking forward to it.

Browse Naomi range of beautiful hand sewn soft lampshades and modern hard lampshades at nana-robin-designs.myshopify.com and give her a friendly follow on Instagram and Facebook.