Floor Lamps for a Living Room: Where to Put One and Which Kind
By Furniture1003 min read
There are two kinds of floor lamp and they are for different jobs. One is a reading lamp: it stands beside a chair and puts light where your hands are. The other is for the room: it stands in a corner and makes the space feel finished after dark. Knowing which you are buying settles most of the decision.
Beside the chair, not behind it
If the lamp is for reading, it goes beside the chair, level with or slightly behind your shoulder, so light falls across the page from the side. Behind the chair puts your own head in the way and casts a shadow exactly where you are trying to read.
Height matters here. The light source should sit a little above your seated eye line, so the bulb is not staring at you. Most floor lamps are built to that height, but a very low chair or a very tall lamp can put the glare in the wrong place, so it is worth sitting in the chair and checking.
The Lansdown, with its three frosted globes, is a good reading lamp for exactly this reason: the globes diffuse the light, so there is no bare bulb to catch your eye from the side.
In the corner, for the room
A lamp in the darkest corner of a room does something a ceiling light cannot: it lights the walls, and a room whose walls are lit feels bigger and calmer than one lit from above. This is the job of the statement lamps.
The Amelie, with three ribbed glass shades on a brushed gold stem, throws a warm, patterned light up the wall behind it. The Aurora crystal tree, in gold or silver, is five lights on branching stems with crystal drops, and it is the one to choose when the corner needs a piece, not just a light. It is a lamp people ask about.
Neither is a reading lamp. Both are the lamp you switch on instead of the ceiling light at seven o'clock.
How many, and where
One good floor lamp on the far side of the room from the window is enough for an evening. Two, at different heights and in different corners, are better than any single ceiling light, because they light the room from the sides and leave the ceiling out of it.
If you have one floor lamp and one table lamp, put them diagonally opposite each other. The room lights evenly and neither has to be bright.
Gold or silver
Gold and brass warm a room. They suit cream, sage, terracotta, and anything with wood in it, which is most British living rooms. Silver and chrome suit grey, white, navy and the cooler, more modern schemes.
The shortcut is to look at what metal is already in the room: the legs of the coffee table, the picture frames, the door handles. Match that, and the lamp looks like it was always there.
The bulb is half the lamp
Whatever you choose, the bulb decides whether it feels like a living room or a waiting room. Warm white, around 2700K, is the colour of lamplight. Cooler bulbs make a beautiful lamp look clinical. Check each product page for whether a bulb is included and which fitting it takes.
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Browse the lighting. For the lamp that goes on the side table next to the chair, our table lamp guide covers sizes and shades.
Frequently asked questions
Where should a floor lamp go in a living room?
Beside the chair or sofa, not behind it. Light from beside falls onto a book or a lap; light from behind puts your own shadow on the page. The dark corner of the room is the other good spot, because a lamp there makes the whole room feel larger than an overhead light does.
Is a floor lamp enough to light a room?
One is enough for an evening, if it is a multi-light design rather than a single reading lamp, and it is on the far side of the room from the window. Two lamps at different heights beat one bright ceiling light every time, because they light the walls and the corners rather than the floor.
Gold or silver?
Gold and brass warm a room and suit cream, green, terracotta and wood. Silver and chrome suit grey, white, blue and anything cool or modern. If the room already has metal in it, on the table legs or the picture frames, match that.
Do floor lamps come with bulbs?
Check the product page for each one, because it varies. Where bulbs are not included, the page states the fitting so you buy the right one. A warm white bulb, around 2700K, is what makes a living room lamp feel like a lamp rather than an office.
Are the crystal tree lamps hard to keep clean?
A soft dry brush or a microfibre cloth every few weeks is all they need. Dust is what dulls crystal, and the drops are what catch the light, so keeping them clean is most of what keeps the lamp looking as it did on day one.
