В спальне висел старый абажур, и свет от него был слишком жёлтым.

Because в can mean either in or into, depending on the case:

• в спальне = in the bedroom → location, so спальня goes into the prepositional case
• в спальню = into the bedroom → movement/destination, so it takes the accusative case

Here the sentence describes where something was, not movement, so в спальне is correct.

Висел comes from висеть, meaning to hang. Russian often uses very specific position verbs where English might just use was:

• стоять = to stand
• лежать = to lie
• висеть = to hang

So в спальне висел старый абажур is more vivid than simply saying it was there. It tells you the lampshade was hanging.

Russian word order is much freer than English word order. Both are possible, but they feel slightly different.

• В спальне висел старый абажур starts with the setting: in the bedroom...
• Старый абажур висел в спальне starts with the object: the old lampshade...

The version in the sentence sounds natural for description or scene-setting, almost like: In the bedroom there hung an old lampshade.

The adjective старый agrees with абажур in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

So:

• абажур = masculine singular nominative
• старый = masculine singular nominative

That is why the ending is -ый.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is абажур, which is masculine singular, so the verb is:

• висел = masculine singular past

Compare:

• абажур висел
• лампа висела
• окно висело
• картины висели

Even though абажур comes after the verb, it is still the subject.

От means from, and it requires the genitive case.

So:

• он → nominative
• него → genitive after a preposition

That gives:

• от него = from him / from it

Here it means from it, referring to абажур. In Russian, the same form can refer to him or it; the context tells you which one is meant.

Also, after many prepositions, third-person pronouns gain an initial н-:

• у него
• к нему
• от него
• с ним
• о нём

Because the subject of the second clause is свет, which is masculine singular.

In the past tense, быть agrees with the subject:

• свет был
• лампа была
• окно было
• огни были

So был matches свет.

This is a very common learner question.

After быть in the past tense, Russian can use a predicate adjective in either:

• the nominative: был жёлтый
• the instrumental: был жёлтым

Both are possible in many contexts. In this sentence, был слишком жёлтым sounds very natural. The instrumental is very common in descriptive writing and often feels a little smoother or more literary here.

So the key point is:

• жёлтым is instrumental singular masculine
• it is used as part of the predicate after был

Слишком means too or overly.

It usually goes before the adjective or adverb it modifies:

• слишком жёлтым = too yellow
• слишком яркий = too bright
• слишком медленно = too slowly

So here it modifies жёлтым.

Because и is joining two full clauses, each with its own subject and verb:

1. В спальне висел старый абажур
2. свет от него был слишком жёлтым

In Russian, when и connects two independent clauses like that, a comma is normally required.

Strictly speaking, yes: the correct spelling is жёлтым with ё.

However, in many Russian texts, ё is often written as е, so you may also see:

• желтым

This does not change the meaning. It is just a common spelling practice in printed Russian. The pronunciation is still with ё.