Living Room Floor Lamps

Where a floor lamp actually goes

Three places earn their keep: beside a chair for reading, behind a sofa to light the wall rather than the room, and in the corner a ceiling light never reaches. A floor lamp standing in the middle of a wall with nothing next to it tends to look stranded.

Reading height and shade position

For reading, the bottom of the shade wants to sit at about eye level when you are seated, roughly 100cm to 120cm from the floor. Higher and the lamp glares; lower and you light your knees. Multi arm lamps like the Banyan solve this differently, spreading several small heads at different heights rather than one big shade.

Arc and overhanging lamps work differently again. The head sits out over the seat rather than beside it, which puts light where a reading lamp should be without needing a table to stand on. They need floor space for the base, usually well behind the sofa, and they are the answer in a room where there is nowhere to put a side table.

Shade size against the furniture

Sizes here run 22cm to 50cm across. A 22cm to 30cm shade suits a lamp beside an armchair. 40cm and above reads as a room light and wants space around it. The rule that holds is that the shade should be narrower than the arm of the chair it stands beside, or you will catch it every time you sit down.

Lamp caps and how many you will be buying

Most of these take E14 candle lamps, and a multi arm lamp may take six of them. That is worth knowing before you buy: six lamps at once is a real cost, and it is worth fitting them all with the same colour temperature from the same box so the heads match.

Colour temperature is where most living rooms go wrong. 2700K is the warm end and is what makes a room feel like an evening room; 4000K belongs in a kitchen. If a floor lamp is the main evening light, 2700K is almost always right, and the difference between a good lamp with the wrong colour temperature and the right one is larger than the difference between two lamps.

Finish against a living room

Matt black and brass are the two commonest finishes here, with white and silver behind them. Black reads as a graphic line and disappears against a dark wall. The brass and gold finishes warm a room with a lot of grey in it, and they pick up whatever warm light you put in them.

Switching and cable

A floor lamp is plugged in, so the switch is on the cable or the body rather than the wall. That is an advantage in a room with one awkward switch, and a nuisance if the only socket is behind the sofa. Check the cable length against the distance to the socket before you settle on a position.

Stability is the last check and the one people skip. A tall lamp with a narrow base in a room with a dog or a child is a lamp that will go over. Weighted bases and a low centre of gravity matter more than the specification suggests, and a lamp tucked beside a piece of furniture is steadier than one standing alone in the open.