Soft lighting seems to be having a moment. A characterful table lamp can really set the tone for a space in a room both in style and ambience. On dark nights, a good lamp can boost illumination in poorly lit spaces like hallways and dull corners of the living space.
They can also create a cosy atmosphere in your home in times between daylight and harsher artificial light. Fabric lampshades have done the job traditionally, and many modern styles incorporate shades and reflectors for directing and diffusing light, too. Multi-tasking lamps are also increasingly common: you can find table lamps that not only illuminate, they also come equipped with a speaker and wireless phone charger.
Most lamps won’t include a bulb, so check carefully what is required and whether it is easily available. LED bulbs offer energy savings and longer life than traditional bulbs but can often lack the warmth and glow that’s desirable for use at home. Here are the Top 5 Best Table Lamps.
1. Night Owl Table Lamp
Designed by Nicholai Wiig Hansen and his aim was to create a Nordic warm and cosy wash of light. The forms of the Night Owl table lamp are simple. A conical base under an oval shade but the materials and finish make the end result outstanding. There are four finishes in a mix of ash and glossy painted aluminium.
The asymmetric shade provides an oval diffusion of the light. The shade can be placed in four different positions, allowing the black cable to exit the lamp in the desired direction. Night Owl is suitable for standing on e.g. a sideboard, shelf, bedside table or in a window.
A versatile little lamp in true Nordic style designed in 2016, the shade washes light downwards to give spaces a special warm glow rather than a bright light.
The lamp consists of a conical base under an oval shade, which can be placed in 4 positions depending on where you want the lead to be. Its colours are inspired by the sky at twilight and the glow of the moon.
Night Owl comes in 4 finishes, the 2 solid colours have an aluminium painted base, the other 2 have ash bases, both under a painted aluminium shade.
2. Warley Black Wooden Table Lamp
The Warley black-stained wood table lamp base Designed by Habitat combines curves and angles in a sculptural design that creates a sculptural statement in a room. This Habitat table lamp includes the striking yellow Drum Silk lamp shade. Shops like Habitat and IKEA are known for offering modern style on a budget. But spend a bit on their top range items and you can find something with real quality.
The ash wood’s grain remains visible through the black stain, adding subtle texture to the lamp’s appearance. The curved base of the Warley lamp is smoothly finished in black-stained ash and lets you see the wood grain within. With a drum shade and a height of 50cm, it has lots of presence. The cable is fabric-wrapped, which is always a quality touch. The shade comes in pink, grey or striking yellow silk lampshades.
The Warley lamp has a black, fabric-wrapped cable and works equally well as a bedside lamp or in the living room; pair it with one of our brightly coloured 35cm shades for a contrasting, contemporary look.
3. Arles Table Lamp
Arles table lamp designed by Domei Endo comes in black, grey or green, mid-century style sleek and compact table lamp in a painted steel finish with brass details and adjustable shade for an angled light. This is a refined designer table lamp that’s inspired by a scene from the town of Arles, France. It’s said that the painted steel shade is designed to look like a French lady’s hat. The angled stem and looped base detail give this lamp an unusual form that is sure to draw looks. It comes in white, black or green with brass accents, and there’s a floor version, too. The adjustable shade also makes this piece a good reading light.
4. Hue Beyond LED Table Lamp
This beautiful Philips Hue Beyond table lamp lets you easily set your home’s lighting design from your smartphone or tablet. The lamp connects to your home Wi-Fi network using the Philips Hue bridge (not included) and allows you to control its settings using the accompanying app, with options for multi-coloured mood lighting and warm white task lighting.
Philips’ LEDs are the future of home bulbs, with their ability to change shades to an extraordinary 16 million colour variations, you’re likely to only use a handful but can program the lamp’s colours to switch for bedside reading, relaxation, working, going to bed and waking up. This smart design can be controlled remotely and can sync up with your smartphone, tablet and even Nest device (automatically switching off when you’re away, alerting you if something seems amiss), and you can set alarms and alerts for every possible need. It is a great original concept in lighting.
5. Aukey Touch Control Table Lamp LT-T6
The Aukey LT-T6 Table Lamp demonstrates the old adage that big things come in small packages. It’s extremely portable (8.5” x 4”) and easy to slip into a small, dark corner to effectively illuminate an area. Clear, warm white light or vibrant multi-colour light for bedrooms, living rooms, hallways, and relaxed modern offices. Perfect for small desks and can be used as a nightstand.
For added convenience, it’s touch-activated. A simple and convenient touch system. You can turn it on and off with a simple tap anywhere on the base. There is an auto-cycle with an extensive selection of 6 colours from the RGB colour spectrum. They are red, white, green, light blue, dark blue and purple. If you like, you can either set the lamp to cycle through all of these colours or to simply settle on one that you like. In addition to this, you can also modify the lamp’s intensity through any of three levels: low, medium and high intensity by touching the base. It can create a cool atmosphere with different-coloured light. You just simply tap the touch control base to toggle three brightness levels of warm white light which are soft, moderate, and bright.
Since it’s an LED lamp, it also manages to be quite bright while consuming relatively little energy. In fact, it runs on only 6 watts when using white light and a mere 3 watts when using a coloured light. Did you know it is portable too?
It’s an ideal lamp to place either on your nightstand, enabling you to do some reading before bed or on a small desk at which you might do some reading or writing. Though it’s a fairly cheap lamp that offers an array of wonderful features at a very good price, you should be aware that some users have reported occasional malfunctions, usually either involving the lamp turning on by itself without being touched or conversely, failing to turn on when touched.