We spend our days thinking about light and lampshades, and about how the right combination can completely transform a room. So when we say a fabric stopped us in our tracks, we really mean it. The first time we saw a Fermoie lampshade, we were captivated by its color, pattern, and texture. Turned on, it seemed to wake up, glowing with warmth and dimension. Switched off, it was just as striking. Here, we realized, was a lampshade made by people who think about light—and design—the way we do.
Who Is Fermoie?
Fermoie was founded by Tom Helme and Martin Ephson, whose fascination with color had already shaped their years at Farrow & Ball, the British paint company known for its richly pigmented, historically inspired color palettes. After helping turn the paint company into a name celebrated for its distinctive approach to color, they began thinking about how that same understanding of pigment and light could be translated into fabric.
Fermoie grew from that idea. From its home in Marlborough, England, the company designs its patterns in-house and prints them on linen and cotton, creating fabrics, wallpapers, and lampshades with an emphasis on color, texture, and the way each design responds to light.
The Patterns and the Palette
Fermoie’s collection spans fifty-four colorways, yet there is a clear sense of connection from one design to the next. The palette is organized into five color families—reds, yellows, greens, blues, and neutrals—with every color developed in relation to the collection as a whole.
Inspired by nature, as well as color, shape, place, and the objects that capture the designers’ imagination, every pattern begins with a hand-drawn line. Despite their differences, Fermoie patterns share a recognizable visual language: controlled spacing, layered pigment, and a rhythm that allows them to sit comfortably alongside one another.
An open, flowing floral such as Marlborough, for example, can work beautifully beside a more compact, closely repeated motif like Rabanna. One introduces movement and scale; the other provides structure. They do not match, but they feel naturally related.
Here, we realized, was a lampshade made by people who think about light—and design—the way we do.
Why We Love Their Lampshades
Of course, we first fell for the fabric. But what we love about a Fermoie lampshade is the way that fabric becomes something entirely different once it is made into a shade.
Each one is made by hand in Fermoie’s Marlborough accessories workshop, where the fabric is carefully cut, positioned, and finished with an attention to proportion and pattern that lets the design speak for itself.
And then you turn on the lamp. The colors become warmer and more luminous, the pattern takes on depth, and the whole shade seems to come to life. It is that transformation we find so special: beautiful fabric made even more beautiful by light.
Our Collaboration
We want to make Fermoie lampshades easier to discover and specify in the United States, and we have expanded our in-stock collection with that goal in mind. Today, The Shade Shop is Fermoie’s largest retail partner in the world and offers the most extensive in-stock selection of Fermoie lampshades in the United States. When a designer discovers a lampshade they love at The Shade Shop—in person or online—it is one they can readily bring into a project.
Marlborough, one of Fermoie’s signature patterns, is a contemporary interpretation of the classic English rose, inspired by a fragment of traditional floral wallpaper and named for the town where every yard is printed.
In Nut Brown, layered brown tones sit against a crisp white ground, becoming warm and amber when illuminated. This distinctive pairing of Marlborough and Nut Brown for a lampshade is available exclusively through The Shade Shop.
Coming in September: Meet the Makers
This is only the beginning of the Fermoie story. In September, The Light Edit will take you behind the scenes at the Marlborough factory, where we will walk the printing floor and meet the people whose skill and craftsmanship can be found in every lampshade.
See the fabrics in another light in Fermoie for the Outdoor Room, then learn more about placing light outdoors in Lighting the Terrace Table.
Explore our in-stock inventory of Fermoie lampshades.
