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From contemporary styles to statement floor lamps, these are our favourite lights for all homes and budgets
Packed with personality and a towering presence, a statement floor lamp will immediately elevate any room. But where a smaller table lamp can be easy to place – sideboard, chest of drawers, console table – a standalone floor lamp demands its own space.
The trick is to find the perfect position for your lamp that won’t interrupt the flow of traffic, but which doesn’t see it cramped into a corner, either. Ideally, you want the whole floor lamp on show, from shade to base.
The use of multiple light sources, as opposed to bright, overhead lighting, is a well-known interior design trick. Not only does it create a warm, ambient glow, but you can layer up your lighting and successfully zone your living space with pools of light, too.
And where a traditional standard lamp offers a single, fixed light source, there are numerous contemporary floor lamps on offer that will give you directional – and sometimes adjustable – accent lighting.
Large, overreach floor lamps, designs with multiple light fittings (otherwise known as tree lamps), or task styles, which are essentially oversized desk lamps that can be positioned to suit your illumination needs, are ideal if you want control over where your light emanates.
We tried out these floor lamps in various rooms and settings around the house, and with different bulbs to see how they transformed the space, looking for the perfect level of illumination and a cosy glow. We also looked at each lamp for quality of materials, design, and craftsmanship.
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Brilliantly retro in design, this playful floor lamp mixes mid-century stylings with a hard-edged industrial feel, yet the look is softened thanks to its choice of colourways, from pastel shades to eye-popping brights. The powder-coated metal lamp features a sturdy streetlamp-like base, a slim stem, and an oversized dome shade that, when put together, makes a contemporary, monochrome statement. Inside the dome is a double LED bulb socket, which successfully pools the light around the bell-like shade, while directing it downwards for a soft and intimate glow.
Inspired by a Chinese lantern, this handmade bamboo and linen shade brings instant calm to living rooms and bedrooms alike, and that’s before you’ve even switched the light on. Sitting lower than most, it boasts a slimline tripod base in black steel, which awards it a pleasing contrast in both texture and materials. Once illuminated, the floor lamp offers a wonderfully soft glow, with the delicate shade gently diffusing the light. While this one comes without a bulb included, it’s worth noting that it is exposed once turned on, so choose a vintage filament style bulb for the best effect.
This is a stylish, contemporary floor lamp that celebrates its curves, not only in its dramatic, overarching stem, but in its circular base and softly rounded dome shade, too. While the metal floor lamp takes its design cue from the industrial, it is all about homely warmth, thanks to its soft copper finish. The Benson boasts a slim silhouette but offers a big impact on the style front. And on the practical side, the lamp is easily manoeuvrable to give you directional light exactly where you need it: pair it with your favourite armchair for the perfect reading spot.
Tall and slim, and with a minimal footprint, this simple task lamp is a refreshing space-saver but it is a stylish one, too. It boasts an antique brass finish, which gives its fuss-free office-like form a glamourous edge – along with a homely warmth. Scoring points on versatility, the Amalfi lamp features an adjustable head, giving you directional light, whether you point it up, down, or somewhere in between. It features a simple on/off switch at the back of the head and with its skinny stem, it may look delicate, but it proves perfectly sturdy.
We do love a floor lamp that boasts a base as decorative as its shade. This one features a criss-crossing tripod of metal legs in the form of bamboo shoots. It’s made to look as if the shoots are casually stacked together in a gravity-defying way, but they are perfectly sturdy. On top is a beautifully made drum shade that features a painterly pattern of tropical green leaves on a dark and moody background. What we love most about this lamp is the way the light emanates from both the top and the bottom of the shade, where it catches its metallic base – an antique brass finish which adds a flash of modern glamour.
This is a statement floor lamp that, thanks to its triple light design, ensures it looks the part at every angle. It is made from strong metal with a polished brass effect and features three frosted white glass orbs that throw light in all directions. Its slimline stem and its upright form ensure it’s a handy space-saver, too. And with all the interest up top, it’ll forgive you for placing it behind an armchair or sofa if space really is an issue. That said, its flat, circular base is just 26cm in diameter, awarding it an unobtrusive footprint. And at under £150, the Estelle proves a stylish floor lamp that looks much more expensive than it is.
Where minimalism meets understated glamour, the Lundy floor lamp is both elegant and refined. It features a cylindrical black marble base that proves satisfyingly weighty – you won’t need to worry about any sways or wobbles where this lamp is concerned. In contrast, its long, brass stem provides a slim silhouette and together, they make the perfect fuss-free base for any of Pooky’s handmade shades, whether you go heavily patterned or plain, drum-shaped or empire.
This is another mid-century inspired floor lamp that goes so well with the Seventies furniture trend we’re seeing everywhere. Unusually for a tall lamp with an arched arm, this one features a neat, suspended drum shade. In a pleasing contrast of materials, the black marble base and stand is met with a woven, rattan-like material that offers a warming glow once it’s illuminated. The shade is also adjustable and can be tilted to give you a pool of light where you need it. Stylish and sophisticated, we love the way the shade is finished with a neat black fabric trim.
We love this brand for its design-led but attainable lighting collection. And this particular floor lamp is guaranteed to turn heads. It comes in a range of contemporary colours but we love the pink for the softness it brings to the otherwise industrial metal. Boasting super-slim tripod pin legs with an oversized dome head, it takes its design cue from the kind of lighting you’d find on a film set. However this one brags a unique form in which gently diffused light from an integrated LED sits behind a front disc, giving you a warm, glowing sunset-like vibe. We also love the way the cord colour matches the lamp – stylishly monochrome to the end.
We loved this Art Deco inspired floor lamp for its subtle form and luxe brass accents. The spindle shaped wooden frame is stained a rich mid-brown, which beautifully brings out the grain of the natural material, while a flash of bright brass, both top and bottom, offers instant glamour. The lamp is topped with a plain white fabric drum shade – this one’s all about the base – while its diminutive tripod bottom takes up minimal floor space. The spindle lamp is beautifully crafted with thoughtful design details. And, choose a warm LED bulb and the drum shade will really glow.
Mixing Scandinavian influences with industrial chic is this unassumingly elegant floor lamp from Amos. In light matte grey and natural pale wood, it offers a calming vibe even before it’s illuminated. We loved its slimline tripod legs and its subtle contrast in colour and materials. The shade, with its soft white interior, is adjustable, allowing us to direct the light to where we need it, and as such it makes a great reading light. This one takes a bulb of up to 60W and is dimmable, which further adds to its versatility. And where other tripod floor lamps tend to steal precious floor space, this one is pleasingly non-intrusive.
Crafted from sustainable jute, BHS’s offering is both eco friendly and bohemian chic. The free-standing lamp/all-in-one shade gives off a softly diffused light, thanks to its intricate woven design. Gently curved, it creates a stylish statement, not to mention a relaxing zen-like vibe. With this one, it’s worth noting that the bulb sits in the centre of the piece as opposed to the top, giving living spaces a different dynamic – suitably low-down for laid-back boho seating. We loved the jute string floor lamp for its ability to transform a room in an instant. It’s impossible not to relax with this one.
Lights and Lamps is another surprisingly affordable lighting destination, with the brand’s pendants and lamps offering something a little different from the usual high street offering. The ridotti floor lamp is a beauty in its chic, tilted, hat-like form. It’s crafted from layers of handwoven raffia with a centred glass globe that gives a soft, diffused up-light.
The disc-shaped shade is supported by a burnished brass stem with tripod feet, making it feel reassuringly sturdy. We loved the ridotti for the glamorous ray of sunshine it brings. It is also, however, available in fashionable black.
Seventies-style ribbed glass is currently enjoying a renaissance and, true to form, Made has embraced the trend. This vintage-inspired floor lamp is a lesson in understated elegance. We loved the dusky pink hue of the textured glass shade, which turns even more pretty once illuminated: not only does it glow, it casts an attractive pattern on the wall.
The briz’s slimline metal stem and base boasts an antique brass finish, further adding to the look. This is a great choice if you’re short on floor space, as it takes up just 26cm of it.
One for traditionalists, Pooky’s offering is a fuss-free but elegant number in brass that has a simple heavy base, slimline antique brass tubing, and a sweet candlestick feature at the top. The standing lamp can be purchased on its own but the brand offers a wealth of perfectly suited – and relatively affordable – shades to finish the look. See your chosen shade in-situ on the website.
The two joints mean it can be adjusted to light up our favourite reading spot. We love Pooky’s attention to detail: even the olive-coloured braided flex is chic.
Our priciest pick is one for dedicated design lovers who’ll know this brand for its homely take on industrial chic. Unlike most overreach styles, this floor lamp features an adjustable boom arm, which allows us to position the light source exactly where it’s needed.
Made from a top-notch aluminium with a powder-coated spun shade in a cool olive green, the quality of its craftsmanship is palpable. A simple and stylish statement piece.
Floor lamps are popular at the moment and can be found in well-known interior magazines. From overreach lamps and tree lamps to task styles, and from Art-Deco to vintage-looking Seventies style designs, there’s a plethora of styles to take your pick from, and in the end, what matters most will be personal preference.
Chances are that in the living room, you’ll want something a little brighter so that you can read a book, or have plenty of light while working from home – especially in the winter months. LED lamps will give the most light, and a floor lamp with LED lamp will therefore be your best pick.
A bedroom doesn’t require as much lighting as a living room, and if it’s warm, ambient lighting you’re after, a shaded floor lamp is perfect.
For the dining room, what’s most important is that the light isn’t too bright as it will make the food look a little pale, which doesn’t appear particularly tasty. A warm white to golden light is therefore perfect. In terms of design, again, this will depend on personal preference, as well as how much space you’ll have to spare.
With so many different designs to choose from, picking our top floor lamps wasn’t an easy task. But we loved Sazy’s Leia light for its cool, retro look, its choice of contemporary colours, and its homely glow. We were also impressed with the Amos Angarrack bamboo linen floor lamp, which brought instant calm to our sleep space.
That said, it worked wonders in our living room, too, thanks to its natural materials and its ambient glow. The Endon Amalfi antique brass task floor lamp proved a stylish space-saver, and a brilliantly affordable one at that.
For more interior inspo, read our round-up of the best modular shelving units
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