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From contemporary styles to statement designs, we’re here to shed some light on the best floor lamps
If you’re looking to add character and impact to your space, a statement floor lamp is the way to go – demanding attention, the best floor lamps can transform a room instantly.
The key to making a floor lamp work within your home is finding the perfect spot for it. You don’t want it awkwardly squeezed into a corner, nor blocking the flow of the room. Ideally, the entire lamp, from its shade to its base, should be on full display – not least because there are some beautiful designs available that you’ll want to show off.
In interior design, layering light sources is a clever trick to create atmosphere. Instead of relying on harsh overhead lighting, using a range of different lamps around the room will bring a warm, inviting glow and help you zone your space with subtle pools of light. While traditional standard lamps give you a fixed source of light, today’s modern designs often go a step further, offering adjustable or directional lighting that adapts to your needs.
From oversized overreach lamps to multi-bulb designs (also known as tree lamps) or large task lamps that function like supersized desk lamps, the options are endless. Contemporary floor lamps give you control over where light falls, making them perfect for tailoring your lighting to suit your mood or activity.
Keep scrolling for the best floor lamp designs that we’d gladly welcome into our homes.
We put these floor lamps to the test in a variety of rooms and settings, experimenting with different bulbs to see how they could transform each space. Our aim? To find the perfect balance of illumination and that all-important cosy glow. Alongside this, we scrutinised each floor lamp’s build, paying close attention to the quality of materials, design and craftsmanship, as well as looking at value for money. Any product that looks and feels more expensive than it is constitutes a win, in our book.
Giving timeless elegance, this beauty from Laura Ashley is gently curved and boasts a directional downlight that’s ideal for reading in your favourite armchair. The floor lamp is crafted from iron, with an antique brass finish that makes it look every bit a charming vintage piece you’ve picked up from a Parisian flea market – its decorative, tiered base adding to the authentically aged look.
The polyester shade is perfectly hat-like in design, with its cinched-in shaping and its duck egg blue contrasting trim. Unlike most other overreaching styles, the upright Dearham doesn’t take up too much space but it certainly stole our hearts.
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.
In sturdy steel with an antique brass finish, the Cape light offers a great mix of vintage and modern style. The aged metallic finish adds a touch of elegance, while the adjustable arm makes it really practical for reading, providing directional light where you need it. It’s got a solid base, so no wobbling, and the simple design fits in with most décor, whether you’re into clean-lined minimalism, or you have a home filled with quirky vintage finds. We love the way the switch is situated at the very top of the lamp – a fun design detail, although, it takes a while to remember where it is each time you go to switch it on or off. Thanks to its brass colourway, and its compact conical shade, this one really glows, so choose a warm bulb, to make the most of it.
A prime example of a floor lamp with a base as decorative as its shade, this colour-popping number from Next is a sculptural affair that plays on the viral bobbles trend, with its tactile, stacked bobble stem. Its tall cylindrical drum shade features another on-trend motif: candy stripes, in mustard and white to contrast with the pea-green stand. Standing at just 110cm, this one’s on the shorter side, but what it lacks in height, it more than makes up for in personality. We love its nod to 1970s design, and, of course, its playful colourway. You wouldn’t know it but the base is crafted from 100 per cent wood, making it a sturdy and durable product – and one that guarantees to lift the mood in any space.
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. 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.
Value Lights is a brand that always delivers on style and substance – and, as the name suggests, affordability. The Margot is a stylishly elegant floor lamp that boasts a tapered (and reliably weighty) marble base, a simple, slimline chrome stem, finished in bright gold, and a fuss-free conical shade in white linen. We found there’s so much to love about this lamp, and the devil’s in the details: the veining on the marble base; the way the base subtly echoes the shaping of the lampshade; and the bold flash of gold, which catches the light once illuminated, awarding it a bit of glitz, along with the glow of the downlight. Best, though, is the affordable price tag. At £75, you really can’t go wrong.
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 adds a flash of modern glamour.
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. 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, the shade is finished with a neat black fabric trim.
We love this brand for its design-led 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 version for the softness it brings to the otherwise industrial metal design. 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 love 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 brings out the grain of the natural material beautifully, 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. Choose a warm LED bulb and the drum shade will really glow.
Mixing Scandinavian influences with industrial chic is this unassumingly elegant floor lamp. In light matte grey and natural pale wood, it offers a calming vibe even before it’s illuminated. We love 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. Plus, 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 the bulb sits in the centre of the piece, as opposed to the top, giving living spaces a different dynamic – it’s suitably low-down to pair with laidback 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 a surprisingly affordable lighting destination, with the brand’s pendants and lamps providing 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.
Seventies-style ribbed glass has been 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 looks even prettier 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 your 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 options from which to take your pick. In the end, though, what matters most will be personal preference.
Chances are that, in the living room, you’ll want something a little brighter, so you can read a book or have plenty of light while working from home – especially during the winter months. LED lamps will give the most light, and a floor lamp with LED lights will therefore be your best pick.
A bedroom doesn’t require as much lighting as a living room, so, 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. However, we loved Laura Ashley’s Dearham lamp for its elegant design and its delicate linen shade that gives both up- and downlighting. We were also impressed with the Novogratz Arnold floor lamp for its eye-catching colourway, its candy-stripe shade, and its on-trend bobble base. For those on a budget, Value Lights’ Margot white marble floor lamp came top in affordable luxury, while the Endon Amalfi antique brass task floor lamp is a real steal.
For more interiors inspo, read our round-up of the best sofa beds