Paper lamp shades have been loved for centuries – here’s why this humble material still lights up our world…
At Pooky, we’re a little obsessed with materials. We spend an inordinate amount of time seeking out the very best of them – feeling, folding, fiddling, testing, and asking: how can we make the most of this? What can it do that no other material can?
Because there’s more to materials than meets the eye. Each one has its own story, its own character, and its own role to play in lighting and interiors. So in this new series, we’re taking a closer look at some of our favorites—starting, appropriately enough, with the humblest of them all: paper. But as you’ll soon see, paper is full of surprises.
Of all the materials in use today, paper must be one of the most familiar – so familiar, in fact, that we often take it for granted.
We may be forsaking printed newspapers and magazines in favor of digital, and letter-writing may be in decline, but we still buy around 2.5 billion paper envelopes each year in the UK alone. Many of us rely on paper for hastily scribbled lists, and stationery companies report a rise in notebook sales—especially luxury or customizable versions. Designer wallpaper is very much in vogue, artists have never abandoned paper, and businesses are increasingly ditching plastic packaging in favor of more eco-friendly paper and card.
But there is something rather magical about paper when it is transformed into a lamp shade. It reveals the hidden qualities of this humble but remarkable material, which has been in use for almost 2,000 years. The light that passes through paper becomes soft, diffused, and calming. As the 20th-century Japanese designer Isamu Noguchi observed: “The harshness of electricity is transformed through the magic of paper.”
In this post, we explore the fascinating story of paper – from its origins and production to the ways it has been used in interiors and lighting. And of course, we’ve included a selection of Pooky’s marvelous paper lamp shades, including designs made from parchment and vellum.
Early paper trails
With the advent of papyrus, Ancient Egypt can claim to have produced the first plant-based writing material. But to trace the true origins of papermaking, we must look to China, where archaeological evidence suggests that paper-like materials existed as early as 200BC. It’s also in China that we find the first use of wallpaper – Qin dynasty decorators are believed to have pasted rice paper onto walls.
Some of those early materials were made from heavy bamboo strips or costly silk, making them either impractical or unaffordable. The breakthrough came in 105AD, when Cai Lun, a dignitary of the Han dynasty’s imperial court, developed a cheaper and more efficient process using mulberry bark, old rags, and fishing nets – a method that would score highly on eco-awareness today. His process revolutionised the recording and spread of information across China, and helped launch the candle-lit rise of the paper lantern.
The technique remained a closely guarded secret in China for centuries, before travelling west via the Silk Roads – reaching the Islamic world in the 8th century and Europe around three hundred years later.
In the meantime, Chinese folding paper screens had already made their way to Japan, where they were adapted into shoji screens – thick sheets of translucent paper stretched across bamboo or wooden lattices and set into wooden frames. Shoji screens have remained a feature of Japanese homes, temples, and palaces ever since. They make interior spaces glow rather than gleam—ideal for creating a calm, contemplative, almost Zen-like atmosphere.
In the 20th century, minimalist designers around the world fell in love with the distinctive shoji combination of simplicity, functionality, and unadorned beauty—a look echoed today in Japandi interiors.
From cupboard linings to works of art
European walls were, of course, rather more solid affairs – and we need to take a giant step forward to consider wallpaper, which began transforming the continent’s interiors in the 16th century and hasn’t looked back since. You need travel only as far as Christ’s College, Cambridge, to find the earliest surviving fragment of European wallpaper: block-printed and dating from 1509, it was made by Hugo Goes of York and features a textile-inspired design derived from Islamic prototypes. (In England, the earliest wallpapers were not used on the main walls of grand houses but to line cupboards and smaller rooms in merchants’ homes.)
In Europe’s palaces and stately homes, Chinese influence was strong – particularly during the 18th century. Around the same time, improvements in block-printing led to a growing variety of colors and styles, from florals to architectural and landscape scenes. The wallpaper manufacturing industry was beginning to take off.
Despite these advances, block-printing by hand remained a laborious process—until 1839, when a Lancashire cotton-printing firm patented the world’s first wallpaper-printing machine. The earliest machine-made wallpapers lacked the rich colors and intricacy of hand-blocked designs, but production boomed, prices fell, and within just 25 years, wallpaper became affordable to all but the very poorest households.
Architects and designers such as A.W.N. Pugin and Owen Jones began to impose their own, very different design philosophies. Pugin favored conventional styles, including medieval and heraldic motifs; Jones was firmly in the naturalistic camp, preferring floral and botanical themes. And then there was William Morris – wallpaper’s great supremo – who skilfully combined and adapted both approaches, with a distinct emphasis on wild and commonplace plants and flowers.
Wallpaper rapidly became an ever-evolving interior design staple, with the development of specialist types such as friezes and nursery prints. It reflected the constant shifts in styles, trends and preferences—from Art Deco to Pop Art. Production seemed unstoppable—until the oil crisis of 1973, which ushered in wallpaper’s lowest point: the beige-and-brick 1980s.
But it’s hard to keep a good thing down. The 21st century has seen a marked revival, with wallpaper once again in high demand. Designer-led and more popular than ever, there's a growing appetite for bespoke and limited-edition prints. DIY-designed wallpapers have even become a regular feature on BBC TV’s Interior Design Masters.
Whatever your style, you can now find the perfect paper—particularly among collections created by some of the designers and companies that collaborate with Pooky, such as Morris & Co, GP & J Baker, and Matthew Williamson.
The gentle art of paper lamp shades
It was the introduction of electric lighting in 1879—far safer than gas or oil-fired lamps—that allowed paper and paper-based lamp shades to flourish. Like mass-produced wallpaper, paper shades could be made quickly, in a variety of styles, and – crucially – at an affordable price.
Pleated paper shades became popular across the UK, mainland Europe, the USA and beyond. In Denmark, architect Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint designed a distinctive pleated paper shade around 1900; it went on sale in 1943 at a Copenhagen shop opened by his son, Tage Klint. Less than a decade later, Japan’s Isamu Noguchi reimagined the paper lantern, creating sculptural designs from washi paper and bamboo that took the world by storm.
By the 1970s, almost every British home seemed to have at least one of the most popular Noguchi-inspired styles: the simple, spherical paper pendant shade – budget-friendly and wonderfully atmospheric.
Paper lamp shades by Pooky
Paper lamp shades have long been a stalwart at Pooky and they include animal-friendly, paper-based parchment and vellum shades. Our paper lamp shades come in a wide range of colors, patterns, sizes and uses; just like wallpaper, something for every type of room and every interior design preference.
One of the simplest and most versatile styles is our empire lamp shade in natural vellum. We don’t use actual vellum—stretched calf hide—but our paper-based version offers the same effect, a delightful glow that adds a soft light, ideal for bedrooms or other spaces where you want to avoid strong lighting.
Stepping it up a notch, pattern-wise, is our straight empire shade in GP and J Baker’s blue and indigo polka dot paper. It’s a bright, joyful design, guaranteed to make you smile. Also available in emerald, black and white, as well as pink and green, and in a range of shade sizes and styles.
Our hand-marbled paper shades are firm favorites. These very special shades come in a fabulous range of colors, in traditional marbling styles such as golden piave. The hand-marbling process dates back hundreds of years and each shade is unique—an exquisitely crafted work of lighting art for your home.
Browse all of Pooky’s lamp shades here.
Image top: Pooky’s straight empire shade in hand made marbled paper in green and blue roya
