Duplume Mid Century Pendant Lamp | Double Glass Shade For Apartments and Dining Room Tables

A double shade puts one glass form inside another, and the reason is optical rather than decorative. The inner shade takes the direct output of the lamp and diffuses it, and the outer one softens what escapes. The result is a fitting you can look directly at with the light on, which single shade pendants rarely manage.

Mid century design used this trick often because the bulbs of the period were harsh, and it remains useful now for a different reason: LED sources are small and intense, which makes them worse point sources than the filaments they replaced. Double diffusion solves the same problem again. Fit a warm LED rather than a cool one, since two separate layers of diffusion take a noticeable amount of warmth out of the light on its way through to the room below it, which a cool lamp only makes worse.

Hang it over a dining table, a breakfast bar, or in an apartment where the ceiling is low enough that the fitting sits near eye level. That last case is where double shading earns its cost. Electrical installation should be carried out by a qualified electrician in line with local wiring regulations. Buy it now.

• Inner shade diffuses, outer shade softens what escapes
• Comfortable to look at directly with the light on
• Solves the harsh point source problem of small LEDs
• Most valuable where the fitting sits near eye level
• Suits apartments, dining tables, and breakfast bars
• Installation by a qualified electrician