Lighting Solutions: How to Select the Right Floor Lamp for Your Space

Where Should I Use Floor Lamps?

Floor lamps can be used in any room. Try two to frame your entrance door in your foyer. They illuminate dark corners, provide great reading light, or can add the perfect decorative accent to a room.

How Tall Should My Floor Lamp Be?

Some floor lamps are adjustable in height, allowing the reader to position the shade to his or her advantage. Select a floor lamp height so that the bottom of the shade falls at the eye level of the user.

Types of Floor Lamps

Floor lamps offer a very versatile lighting source. As a result of the wide variety of sizes and shapes of floor lamps available, they can also be selected purely for their decorative contribution to the space. Torchieres (lamps with upside down shades) provide an interesting alternative by focusing intense light up to illuminate the ceiling and architectural features or flood a dark corner with softer reflected light.

Floor Lamp Wattage

Look for floor lamps with 3-way sockets to allow you to change your lighting levels for different activities.

Placement

For reading, floor lamps should be used behind or to the side of a sofa or chair, casting light directly on the work area. Floor lamps are most effective when glare is reduced by placing the bottom of the lampshade at the reader’s eye level.