Lamp Antique Restoration Shop on Pico: Lampshade Specialties

Lampshade Specialties has repaired lamps on the Westside since 1965, and its shop is at 10578 W Pico Blvd., Los Angeles 90064, between Overland Avenue and Prosser Avenue in the Rancho Park area. For an antique restoration shop that deals only in light, it covers a lot: antique table and floor lamps, oil lamps, crystal chandeliers, and the shades that go on top of them. Hours are Tuesday to Friday, 9 am to 3 pm, and Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm. Sunday, Monday and holidays are closed.

The homepage names three specialties: antique lamps, chandeliers and oil lamps. Oil lamps are the telling one. A brass or glass oil lamp from the late nineteenth century was never designed for electricity, and turning it into a working lamp without drilling the font or damaging the burner takes a careful hand. The same applies to early electric fixtures, whose original sockets, switches and cloth-covered wiring are often brittle after many decades in an attic or a garage.

The shop's lamp and shade page lists the core of the repair work: replacement of sockets and switches, rewiring and new cords, and replating. Replating matters for brass and nickel lamps whose finish has worn away, since a new cord and socket look odd on a base that is still dull and patchy. Doing both in one visit means the lamp comes back working and looking the way it did when it left the factory.

Chandeliers have their own page on the official site. It covers crystal replacements, which is the most common reason people bring one in: a few prisms lost in a move, a broken bobeche, or a string of beads that snapped while cleaning. It also covers canopies and chains, the parts at the ceiling that people forget until they have to rehang a chandelier in a new house and find the old canopy will not fit the electrical box.

Before you take a chandelier down, photograph it from several angles so the crystal layout can be rebuilt, and count the prisms on each arm. Pack loose crystals in a separate box with tissue between them. If the fixture is heavy, keep its original chain and hook with it, since matching antique chain to the original links is easier than guessing later, and the shop can replace whatever is missing. Note where the fixture hung and how high, too, because a chandelier moving from a tall dining room to a lower ceiling may need its chain shortened, and that is simplest to plan while the fixture is already on the bench being rewired.

The shop's name is not an accident. Lampshade Specialties makes custom shades in house and repairs existing ones, which makes it one of the few places on the Westside where an antique lamp can be restored and dressed in the same visit. The right shade changes how an old lamp reads in a room. A silk bell shade suits a Victorian banquet lamp, while a simple drum shade sits better on a mid-century ceramic base.

Bring the lamp itself, not just measurements, when you want a new shade, because the harp height, finial and base proportions all decide what size and shape will look right. If an old shade has a frame worth saving, such as a scalloped silk shade from the 1920s, ask about re-covering it rather than replacing it. Old frames are often sturdier than new ones, and a re-covered original keeps the period look.

The shop's hours are short, so plan around them. It opens at 9 am on weekdays and closes at 3 pm, and on Saturday it runs from 10 am to 2 pm. Arriving in the morning gives the staff time to look at the lamp with you and discuss the work. The website does not publish a price list, so the cost of a rewire, a replating job or a chandelier repair is quoted when you bring the piece in.

Carry a lamp with the shade removed and the bulb taken out, and wrap glass parts such as chimneys, globes and shades separately. For an oil lamp, empty any fuel completely and let it air out before bringing it in. If a lamp has sentimental value, mention any parts you want kept exactly as they are, such as an original switch or a maker's tag, so they are cleaned and reused rather than swapped for new hardware.

This stretch of Pico Boulevard runs through a quiet residential part of West Los Angeles, close to green space. Rancho Park Golf Course, the city golf course at 10460 W. Pico Blvd., spreads out a few blocks east, and the Cheviot Hills park and recreation fields sit along its southern edge. The long Fox studio lot at 10201 W. Pico Blvd. sits further east toward Century City.

For anyone using the train, the nearest Metro E Line stop is Westwood/Rancho Park on Westwood Boulevard, on the line between Downtown and Santa Monica. Pico itself is lined with small family businesses and cafes, so a drop-off on a Saturday morning pairs easily with breakfast and a walk before the shop closes at 2 pm.

Address: 10578 W Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064, between Overland and Prosser. Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9 am to 3 pm, Saturday 10 am to 2 pm, closed Sunday, Monday and holidays. Founded: 1965. Services: antique lamp, oil lamp and chandelier restoration, socket, switch and cord replacement, rewiring, replating, chandelier crystal, canopy and chain replacement, custom lampshades and shade repair.

Best for: an inherited brass lamp that no longer works, an oil lamp you want converted for everyday use, or a chandelier missing crystals before a move into a new home. Bring the lamp with its shade, finial and any loose parts. Ask the Karpo APP for a deli or coffee shop on Pico nearby, and the repair drop-off turns into an easy Westside morning out.