Add a drum shade to a ceiling fan in minutes!

Hello all! A couple weeks ago I did a little project that only took about five minutes and buck to complete. So of course I had to show you. 🙂

I saw an idea in one of my old magazines and then did a little researching online to see if I could figure out how to do it myself. I didn’t find the how-to, but I did find another inspiration picture:

We have a ceiling fan in our family room (this is an updated post from our last house) and even though I’d prefer something prettier, it’s staying for now. It’s necessary for the times the oven starts smoking in the kitchen, the smoke alarm is going off, and opening the windows and flapping the kitchen towel just isn’t cutting it. 🙂

The fan is darker brown, which I do like. It has three lights as you can see here:

Nothing awful, but I was inspired by the photos I found and wanted to try something different. I decided I was going to do my best to use what I had on hand to change it up.

I started by taking off the glass covers – you just squeeze the metal pieces inside and pull the glass off:

Next up – to figure out how to get my lamp shade to stay on the fan. I had large Goodwill drum shade I planned to use and it was the type with the wire circle at the top of the shade – the kind you have to use with harp. (More on that in a bit!)

So I stood under the fan for about ten minutes, thinkin’ and a thinkin’. I noticed there was a little jobby on the bottom where the pull chain came out. It matched the one on the side:

Because I’ve changed out a meeellion lights in this house, I have plenty of electrical parts laying around. I dug through my stash and found this lamp pipe (also called a nipple):

I knew if I could get it connected to the fan, I could figure this out:

I looked and looked and LOOKED and tried every little trinket I had in my tool box, and nothing worked. Drats.

I was so determined at this point, I was off to the hardware store. 🙂 I looked around for awhile, but couldn’t find the exact piece I needed.  Lowe’s Guy and I both spent a good ten minutes looking through the drawers of nuts and connectors, and still couldn’t find anything that worked. And then Lowe’s Guy No. 2 came up to help and suggested I look in…wait for it…the ceiling fan area.
Now, who would have thunk it? 🙂 Bahhhrilliant.

There I found exactly what I was looking for:

Two of these little connectors came in a package for about $ 1.50. Not bad. They are called couplings and you can find them here…but I recommend you try them out at the store to see what fits.

I threaded the coupling to the fan, put the longer “pipe” into that one, and then put the hole of the lamp shade over the long piece:

I secured the shade up there with a small nut (picture on the right). It worked perfectly!

The original lamp shade I tried was way too big though, so I took another off a lamp and used that instead:

Love, love, LOVE.

There’s a few things to consider if you want to try this out – first of which is your ceiling height. The shade hangs lower than the glass shades did, by about five inches I’m guessing? Our ceilings are nine feet, so we still have plenty of clearance.

Something else to consider is your lamp shade. My shade was the type that fits on the lamp with a harp – it’s called a spider fitting:

This “spider” natural linen drum shade is lovely and would work perfectly! This white linen shade would work as well.

If you have an uno style shade, or the type that fits right over the lamp socket, you’ll have to use a different method:

I’m sure there’s a way to wire that type of shade up there. But if you are thinking about trying this out, I’d suggest using one with the spider fitting, just because it’s SO easy.

If the bare bulbs showing from underneath the fan are going to bother you, this probably won’t work for you. That doesn’t bug me one bit, since you only see the light bulbs if you’re right under it:

You actually see less of the bulbs this way than with the original glass shades!

One more thing to consider is the size of your shade. The light bulbs need to be two to three inches from the shade, for safety reasons:

But that also depends on the wattage of your bulbs – ours are 60 watt and we have a dimmer on this light. (And even though our shade is large enough, I had the light on full force for hours the first day, feeling to see how warm the shade was every ten minutes or so.)

It was fine. But I’m a freak like that.  🙂

And of course, the newer LED bulbs make this even less of a concern — they burn so much cooler than incandescents.

This new look makes more of a statement than the glass shades, but I find I notice it less. Maybe it’s because those covers were never my cup of tea. Or it could be because I love drum shades (especially those trimmed out with lovely jute trim).

I LOVE how it turned out. Especially because it only cost $ 1.50!:

Oh, and it holds up great when the fan is running too. Our fan doesn’t shake much anyway, but it’s totally secure.

If you don’t have a drum shade, HomeGoods always seems to have a good selection. Or try the online options I linked above. You can also find decorative ceiling fan pull chains like I have at most hardware stores or online. There are tons of cute options!

Over the years ceiling fan designs have started to use the drum shade look more and more. This is a beautiful option and I like this one too. But adding a shade to your current fan will save you tons of money!

So have you doctored up a ceiling fan? With spray paint? New shades? Have you tried this project? Do share!

Here’s an image to pin this for later:

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Thrifty Decor Chick