Table lamp: how to choose the right one

We often choose a lamp for its silhouette, in a shop or from a photo. Yet it is best judged at home, in the evening, where it will stand. Four questions are enough to get it right: where to put it, how high, with which shade, and what light.

Start with the furniture

Before the lamp, look at the piece of furniture it will stand on. It says almost everything about what the lamp should be.

• A console or a sideboard: the lamp becomes part of the wall's composition. It can be taller, more sculptural, and seen from a distance.
• A side table next to a sofa: it lights reading and conversation. It must stay soft for the people sitting right beside it.
• A bedside table: a low lamp with a very warm light, which you can switch on without getting up.
• A desk: a crisper light that lights the work surface without dazzling you.

The right height

The simplest guideline: sitting next to the lamp, you should not see the bulb. The bottom of the shade is then roughly at eye level. On a console, seen standing and from further away, the lamp can go higher.

Proportions matter as much as height. A small lamp on a long sideboard looks lost; a lamp that is too tall on a low side table overwhelms the sofa. If in doubt, place a box of the same height where the lamp will go: within seconds, you can see whether the proportion works.

The shade decides the light

A fabric or linen shade lets light through and diffuses it with no visible point: the whole lamp glows softly. It is the ambient light par excellence, for the living room and the bedroom.

A stone base, such as travertine, gives the lamp weight. It keeps it steady on a desk or a console, and gives it the presence of an object, even when switched off.

The colour of the light

Look at the colour temperature, in kelvins. Around 2700 K, the light is very warm, close to the old bulb: it is the light of the living room and the bedroom. At 3000 or 3500 K, it becomes crisper, useful on a desk. To learn more, read our guide to kelvins.

Our lamps, piece by piece

On a console or a sideboard, Horizon runs a column of fabric through its oval shade, and Ponant dresses the furniture in ecru linen; both give light at 2700 K. Next to a sofa, Vesper stacks two linen drums on a slim black metal stem, 65 cm tall. On a desk, Équinoxe sets down its travertine base and its light at 3000 K.

One lamp, or two

In the evening, a room is better lit by several low lights than by a single strong one. A lamp by the sofa, another on a console, a light painting on the wall: the ceiling light can stay off. Just keep lights of the same warmth, so that the room stays in tune.