Lampshades Unlimited

Now at Girard Avenue Marketplace! We’ve added so many new items to the shop, including this gorgeous pair of Monumental Antique Wallpaper Roller Lamps with crisp new White Linen Lampshades! #lampshadesunlimited #girardavenuemarketplace #wallpaperrollerlamps #antiquewallpaperrollers #whitelinenlampshade #customlampshades #customlamp #interiordesign #interiordesigner #coastalliving #midcenturysandiego #sandiego #smallbusiness #familybusiness #vintage #vintagestyle #lajolla

Now on the showroom floor, fresh from our repair shop with all new wiring! This gorgeous pair of lamps from Quartite Creative Corp, 1961! They look fantastic with short & wide, or tall & skinny mid century drum style lampshades! You decide! I staged them with neutrals, but an orange or blue linen or velvet would look amazing too! #lampshadesunlimited #quartitecreativecorp #quartitelamp #midcenturymodern #midcenturylighting #midcenturylamp #lampshades #drumlampshades #midcenturylampshades #interiordesign #midcenturystyle #sandiego #smallbusiness #familybusiness @ Lampshades Unlimited

Ever thought that your lampshades are kinda plain? Boring even? Sometimes even the best lampshades could use a little oomph! If you already didn’t know, I do custom trim work! These are shades that we stock here at the store, but today I’m adding some trim to customize them for one of our clients! If you’re interested in doing something different with your favorite lamps, I’d be happy to show you our many custom styles, colors, and trim options! All handmade in the USA, and all trim work done on location at our Lampshades Unlimited store! #customlampshades #fabrictrim #interiordesignprojects #interiordesign #silklampshades #lakeshorestudios #sandiego #smallbusiness

Check out this gorgeous restoration that we did for a customer yesterday! I love seeing all of the interesting lamps and shades that get brought in to us for repair, and I particularly loved this one. I have a major weakness for flowers, so of course I was crazy about this antique lampshade that is literally made of super detailed metal flowers! The fabric shade inside had had its day though and needed to be replaced, which is where we come in! Our local seamstress Wendy made... a whole new inside shade for it using the old one as a pattern so it fit back inside the metal frame perfectly. The owner of the lamp brought the whole thing in so that we could see it all finished. It was a restoration for his mother, and I love that about this business, being able to bring lovely things back to life that make other people happy! This is definitely one of my favorite projects that we’ve done so far this year! @ Lampshades Unlimited See more

The new Spring/Summer collection of Maruca bags is in! You all loved the fall collection so much, so I brought in the new stuff! Their fun colors and patterns are fantastic this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these became your new favorite bag! We have some new styles in a few different sizes, perfect for gifts (Mother’s Day is coming up fast!) or even just a gift for yourself! Come check them out at Lampshades Unlimited or our Girard Avenue Marketplace location! #marucadesign #springstyle #fashion #colorfulstyle #girardavenuecollection #sandiego #lajolla #smallbusiness #giftideas #mothersdaygift @ Lampshades Unlimited

Many of you know that our repair guy Jeff is a master craftsman when it comes to creating custom lamps and doing lamp repairs, but you may not know that he is skilled in more than just lamps! Jeff and his lovely wife create the most beautiful hand polished and silver wire-wrapped opal jewelry! I am lucky to own several pieces of theirs now, and they are some of my absolute favorite things to wear. I am proud to feature their work here at the store! If you are looking for a special handmade gift this year, and know someone who loves opals, you can’t go wrong with any of these beautiful gems!

This Holiday season I know a lot of us will be missing our families as we do our best to keep them safe, myself included. My own family is far away on the other end of the state, and it has been so hard not to be able to visit them this year. As a comfort, I thought it would be nice to bring one of the family holiday traditions that I started with my kids into the store for all of you. A few years ago I started making my own Christmas ornaments, many of them personalized for my children and family. I made some this year for the store for those who like a handmade touch to their holidays! I can make them personalized too, with a name or special design if you like! I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does.

Hello friends! As we are approaching the Holidays, I hope everyone is doing well and safe! As always, we are here to restore your lamps and freshen up your lampshades, but with safe in-person shopping being limited this year, I have added some little gift items to the store to add some merriment and give you more options when you come in for your services! I’ll post them separately so as not to make this post too busy. For this one though, here are some cheerful holiday finials that we have in stock!

Sorry that this is such a late post everyone, but Yay for Halloween and Fall time! Even though we’re still in the 80s and 90s here in San Diego, we can still fake it, right?! We did this two weeks ago already, but you all know how life gets busy, so here it is, our Halloween window! I’ve had this idea of creating an old tree out of paper for quite awhile now, whether for the store or just creating something fun for my kids. So this seemed like the best time to do it! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

For our September display, I pulled inspiration from one of my favorite dates with my husband. A few years ago we went to one of our favorite places, The Huntington Library, for a special night time event in their incredible Chinese garden that they called The Chinese Harvest Moon Festival. It was so beautiful, and a memory that we look back on fondly. With September approaching (now here already!), and so many of our antique lamps and findings reminding me of that, it seemed like the perfect time to feature them all together! It was a lot of fun creating this display. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do!

Yes we are having a sale! All of our lamps, including this gorgeous antique Aladdin Alacite lamp featured here, are 20 % off for the entire month of September!

Working today in my favorite mask! whether you’re coming to see us at the shop today, or just out running errands, I hope you are all having a safe and happy Thursday! Times are tough right now, but if you have the opportunity to do even the smallest thing to (safely) make someone happy, a little kindness goes a long way. Being able to help people with things that make them happy is the biggest part of why I love my job. Keep smiling guys, keep trying, even though the mask covers it up! I appreciate all of you!

We have new original artwork up on the gallery wall for summer by yours truly! My artwork is usually flowers, but I’ve been wanting to try my hand at sea creatures for quite awhile now (with all the spare time I don’t ever have, right?!), so there’s a Jellyfish and a Sea Star up now! I’ll be adding more when I can. Maybe an Octopus! You can see other examples of my work Here! https://www.facebook.com/Amber-Boggs-1651818465102987/

A nice way to customize a lamp is to put matching or complimenting trim on the lampshade. It’s easy and inexpensive, and instantly gives you that designer look! Here is a set of chandelier shades that I trimmed today for a client. Any time you’re interested in customizing your lampshade, come on over and I’ll show you options!

Nothing says summer like the beach, so we brought it in for the new display, with a fun twist of pirate style on the side! (Arrrr Matey! As our little son Elliott likes to say.)

Today I got to restore something very special. This lampshade was given to my client by the daughter of Leo Durocher. It was made sometime in the 40s or 50s, and is handpainted with scenes from Leo’s baseball career. I don’t know very much about baseball, so I did some research (including asking my big sports fan Dad) and found out that Leo Durocher played professional baseball with Joe DiMaggio, and was even more famous for being a coach afterward, and was a major part of br...eaking the color barrier in baseball with Jackie Robinson. In one scene, Joe DiMaggio and Leo Durocher are painted together. I wish I knew more about this, what the stories are about, who the artist was, but either way, this is one for antiques roadshow and a baseball museum! It was really neat getting to work on this! Here are the before and after pictures of the preservation and all of the scenes! See more

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying your Memorial Day weekend! I am extremely excited to share with you that we now, for the first time ever in our 35 years of business, have our own website! It's long overdue, I know, and I feel so official now! Our graphic Designer, Shaun Doniger, did an amazing job and I couldn't be happier with it! I hope you guys like it as much as I do! https://www.lampshadesunlimitedinc.com/

With all of us being stuck inside for so long, I know we are all missing the outdoors and the trips we would have taken. So for our latest window display we have decided to bring the outdoors in with a lush tropical theme! I like to think of lamps and lighting as the jewelry of your home. You can go as simple or fancy as you like, and using lamps with the right complimenting shade and finial, you can truly turn your space into a sanctuary that’s personalized just for you!

Hello everyone! I hope you all have been doing well during this difficult time. We have missed being a part of your lives for the last couple of months and I am happy to say that we are now officially open again! We are complying with the state's Safe Reopening Plan, and ask that everyone wear a facial mask and practice social distancing in the store. Our staff is doing the same, and we are also sanitizing everything multiple times a day. Also, please stay home if you are s...ick, we will still be here when you feel better! Because we are so small and don't tend to get a lot of customers at one time, we currently don't have a customer limit, but if that need arises we will do that as well. We also encourage curbside service if you are just dropping off or picking something up. Give us a call for that at (619) 276-6530 and we will be right out to help you! I know that these changes can be frustrating and take a little more time to utilize, but we appreciate your patience so that we can still provide you with the services you love and also keep you and our families safe. We look forward to seeing you, safely! Amber Boggs & family

Hello everyone. This last week has certainly been a very difficult and emotional week for all of us, not just locally, but nationally, and across the world at this point. Aside from the stories I've heard from my grandparents of WWII and the Great Depression, I think it's safe to say that most of us have never been through anything that has effected our day to day lives as much as this COVID19 outbreak has. I feel like so far I have been extremely lucky in that all of my fa...Continue reading

Good evening everyone. After the news today of the stay in place order issued for all of California by our Governor, I am temporarily closing Lampshades Unlimited, effective immediately, until the order is lifted. It may seem like an extreme measure to have to do this, but I feel like it is for the greater good, and I would rather be on the safe side now than wish I had been later instead. The decision to stay home and close all non-essential businesses could save lives, and... I urge all of you to do the same to the best of your abilities. We must work together to help each other all get through this difficult time. I am very much looking forward to seeing and helping everyone back in the store after all of this is over. Thank you all so much, Amber Boggs

Greetings to all of our wonderful customers and followers. In the face of the COVID 19 pandemic, I feel it necessary to provide you all with an update on what we are doing to deal with this. As many of you know, we are a very small business, run by myself, my husband David, and our repair man Jeff. It is so small that even though it's business, it is personal too, and we have put our lives into it for many years. David and I have 3 small children, 2 of them babies. Currently... as of Tuesday the 17th (tomorrow), I will be unable to come in for work as usual because our children are either out of school, or sick with a minor cold and we are keeping them away from daycare as a safety precaution for themselves and others. Jeff will be there in the store doing repairs and able to help you during our standard hours of operation. I will be able to answer any questions about orders or lampshade and lamp information from home if you wish to call me from the store. However, this is all subject to change on a day by day basis as we get updated news and recommendations on this crisis. I am keeping up with the news and we are preparing to close as needed, whether it be if mandated, or if one of us feels unsafe to be at work or need to stay home to take care of our families. Please give the store a call if you are planning to come in to make sure we are there, as I would hate for you to make an unneeded trip out. Our store doesn't usually have more than 5-6 people at a time in it, at most, which is why we are even still open. I believe in honesty and transparency in business, and I'm not going to sugar coat things and say that the loss in business won't be a hardship for us, as with everyone else impacted by this, it absolutely is and will be rough. But that being said, the health and safety of our families, our customers, and community, are our highest concern. If you do not need to come in to the store for anything, please stay home and stay safe. We will be happy to fix all of your lamps and pick out beautiful lampshades for you when all of this blows over. I will post updates if anything changes. Thank you all so much for your continued support over the years. Together we will get through this, and I look forward to helping you for many years to come. Amber Boggs, Owner of Lampshades Unlimited (619) 276-6530

This has been my latest big lamp project at the store! When I first found this beauty, she was in really rough shape. She was missing some crystals, and what was there was falling apart with antique pins that were too weak to hold. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve replaced the missing crystals and repinned all of the existing ones, and our repair guy cleaned her up, gave the hardware a fresh coat of paint, and a full electrical rewire. Now she looks beautiful and happy again on display in the store window!