Decorating your home is an exciting but challenging undertaking. You have to make numerous decisions such as your price range, design style, and colors to consider for your home’s furniture, decor pieces, and lighting.
Lighting is one of the most important aspects of decorating a home. However, different rooms in your house need varying lumens depending on the square footage and the room’s function. Bedrooms and living rooms need 10-20 lumens, while kitchens need 70-80 lumens per square foot.
But with the endless choices in the market, which types of lamps should you buy for your house? This lamp buying guide will help you navigate different lamp choices, giving insight into important things to consider before purchasing a lamp.
Table of Contents
1.Buffet Lamps
Also known as console lamps, buffet lamps are often tall and slender, usually standing 32 to 36 inches. They look like a more elevated and bigger version of table lamps. They were initially designed to be used on a buffet table setting to illuminate the food.
Buffet lamps are perfect for lighting different rooms in your house, including the dining area and a home office. Standing over 32 inches tall, its shade is high enough to be out of your way when bringing food containers to the table. Their slender shape also means they won’t take much space in the house.
Unfortunately, buffet lights only provide lighting for a small space in a room. This means you may need multiple lamps to illuminate a whole room. While it may be perfect for your office desk, it’s not a reliable source of lighting for your family room.
2.Tripod Lamps
Tripod lamps are ideal for people looking for stylish, unique, and decorative lamps. Thanks to their three-legged base, well-polished hardware, and unique shape, these types of lights add an architectural edge to your space while still providing sufficient lighting to illuminate an entire room.
Tripod lamps are suitable living room lamps when you need an additional lighting source. Their three-legged base provides a stable and sturdy base area and a unique design element. These types of lamps are designed to provide lighting for a whole room.
The major disadvantage of using a tripod lamp is the amount of space it takes. While the three-legged base is perfect for stability, it takes up too much space. This makes it harder to use in an already-crowded or smaller room.
3.Arc Lamps
Arc Lamps have a long, arc-shaped arm and a slender body with an outwards-extending lampshade from the main body. Such lamps are ideal for corners where the lampshade can arch over a sofa or a table.
Thanks to their slender body, arc lamps take up a tiny space and offer functional lighting for specific tasks due to their arc shape. These types of lights come in different contemporary and traditional designs, giving your space a vintage look.
Unfortunately, someone can easily knock over this type of lamp as the arc shape shifts its weight making it more unstable than other lights. If you prefer an arc lamp, it’s best to place it in a corner or an area with less traffic to avoid someone tipping over.
4.Swing Arm Lamps
Coming in different shapes and sizes, you can place swing lamps on an office desk, a table, or floor. One of the most outstanding features of a swing lamp is the functional and adjustable arm.
You can adjust and configure the swing arm to meet your precise lighting needs. If you’re working on a project that requires more close-up lighting, you can adjust the arm so it focuses the light on the needed spot. This makes swing arm lamps more versatile than other types of lamps.
While swing arm lamps are great, the light will only illuminate a concentrated area and not the whole room. This is ideal for people looking for a desk or table lamp. However, if you are looking for a room’s primary lighting source, a floor arm lamp may be too dull to illuminate the entire room.
5.Torchiere Floor Lamps
Torchiere floor lamps come in different shapes, sizes, and designs. They are characterized by their tall bodies and upwards-facing lampshades that provide accent luminescence or ambiance to a room. They are also the most popularly used classic types of lighting in homes.
One of the most popular torchiere floor lamps is the Tiffany-style stained glass and contemporary frosted glass designs, which will complement any design style you choose.
Thanks to their upwards-facing shades, torchiere lamps can be used as the room’s primary lighting source. That’s because they have a higher illumination range, and the light produced bounces off the ceiling, illuminating the whole room, making them a better source of lighting than other lamps. You can also add different special features to match your desired aesthetic design.
However, the most significant disadvantage of torchiere lamps is that it’s easy to knock them over. This can be a safety hazard, especially if you are using Tiffany-style lampshades and the glass breaks. To remedy this, ensure you find a lamp with a more weighted and thicker base and place it in an area with little to no human traffic.
6.Piano Lamps
Piano Lamps were initially designed to illuminate organ keys of an electric keyboard or piano and sheet music. They were also created to provide enough light without blinding the musician. They come in different designs, sizes, and shapes to meet different pianists’ needs.
Piano lamps have a slender body, with a hood and a horizontal bulb that directs all light downwards. Some piano lamps come with swing arms to allow pianists to adjust and move the light if needed.
While initially designed for musicians, a piano lamp can be a practical addition to your working desk. You can also use it as a reading lamp or overhead lighting when playing the piano. However, they are not ideal for illuminating a whole room.
7.Tree Lamps
Tree lamps are ubiquitous and come in a range of designs. The lamp design features a body with different lights branching from the main stand. The light branches may face the same side or different directions, similar to tree branches.
If you’re looking for ambient or directional lighting, a tree lamp is an ideal choice. Most tree lamps come with adjustable branches or Gooseneck, allowing you to point the light in any direction.
Tree lamps are helpful in any room that requires a lot of light. However, the lamp takes up a lot of space and might be pretty bulky. It’s also not available in smaller sizes, thus can’t function as a table lamp.
8.Gooseneck Lamps
Gooseneck lamps come in two different designs; a fixed metal neck that features a standard curve and an adjustable and flexible neck that can be moved to different positions. They also come in both floor and table lamp designs, making them quite versatile for different home uses.
Its flexibility and curved neck make it an ideal home office lamp, as it allows you to focus the light in one targeted spot. You can also use gooseneck lamps as bedside lamps complementing the already lit bedroom.
Unfortunately, they are not ideal for illuminating a whole room. Thus can only be used as secondary sources of lighting.
9.Boom Arm Lamps
Boom arm lamps feature a tall body and an adjustable swinging arm and are ideal for table and desk use. They also have a dome-shaped top to house the bulb. Because they’re designed like microphone stands, they are commonly found in recording studios.
They have modern-looking, smooth lines, and many functional features, making them perfect for bringing a modern yet classic look to your space. Thanks to their swinging arm, boom lamps can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically, making them more versatile than other types of lamps.
Unfortunately, boom lamps can be quite shaky and unstable, making them easy to topple over, especially if you have kids and pets. Thus, it’s advisable to look for a lamp with a larger or heavier base area to provide more stability.
Lamp Styles for Different Parts of Your Home
Varying types of lamps are ideal for different rooms in your house. With so many lamp styles to choose from, how do you know what is right for your house? Understanding different lamps’ functionality and aesthetic appeal will help you choose the right lamps for your home.
Below are three different lamp styles and how they fit in different spaces around the house:
1.Floor Lamps
Floor lamps are both pleasing to the eye and functional. They can serve as an additional source of lighting in your sitting area or as accents in different rooms. While they’re placed next to large furniture pieces, they can serve numerous other purposes, which include:
- Act as a complement décor piece in a room
- You can use it to create a focal point in a room
- Provide depth in an open space
- Can help accent lights in a room when placed at a corner
Out of all the three lamp styles, floor lamps are the largest and use up the most space. They can also block your view of the other side of the room, especially if you place them poorly. Thus to avoid this, it’s advisable to place them next to a wall or a corner.
2.Desk Lamps
Desk lamps look similar to table lamps with one distinctive difference; desk lamps are designed to target their light in one small spot. They are often used on working desks because they focus their light on the project at hand. Desk lamps can also be used for reading.
They often feature a gooseneck arm, allowing you to adjust them as needed. Desk lamps can also be used for:
- Drawing
- Writing
- Playing the piano
- Sewing
- Typing and codding
While desk lamps offer a practical and functional light source for completing certain tasks, they’re not ideal for lighting a whole room. That’s because their light is only concentrated on one specific area.
3.Table Lamps
Table lamps are practical and can be used for house decoration. If carefully chosen, table lamps can do wonders to your interior space.
But for you to get the best choice, you have to know the right size that fits your room’s lighting needs. A scaled lamp will look better in a room and will prevent light from shining into your eyes. So as you buy your table lamps, consider the eye level rule.
If you’re using the lamp in your living room, the bottom of the shade should be at the same level as your eye. This position ensures that no light is shining into your eyes.
The same eye level rule should apply if you’re sitting on a chair.
If you’re in the market for these accent table lamps, you need to understand that far from the old-fashioned types from the past, modern ones add a touch of class to your interior design. They have fine finishes and brilliant colors that will please the eye.
Choosing the Ideal Types of Lamps Based on Functionality and Design
Looking for the right lighting for different areas of your home can be quite difficult. When considering the different types of lamps, it’s essential to look at what you hope to achieve with the lighting.
Do you want functional yet decorative lighting? Are you looking for a primary source of lighting for certain rooms?
Remember also to consider the dimensions of the area you’re looking to install the lamps.
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