Obviously, each floor lamp has its own unique aesthetic. It’s important to choose a floor lamp that not only looks good to you, but also matches the space you intend to put it in. Sometimes a floor lamp will look great in pictures, but it’s important to consider the scale and how the lamp will look in your particular space. Here’s what to keep in mind:
Cost
The cost of floor lamps can vary wildly from low-cost, purely functional models, to thousands of dollars for artistic or design pieces.
Generally, the more intricate the aesthetic or desirable the name, the more expensive the piece will be. But the nature of a floor lamp often means a fantastic design can serve as a work of art for the room it’s in.
Size
Size can vary quite a bit as well. Shaded or torchiere lamps, while tall, take up a narrow amount of space due to their vertical orientation, making them easy to fit into the surrounding space. Meanwhile, arc floor lamps take up more space due to their horizontal extension. It’s crucial to know how much space you have to fit a floor lamp into, so you can be proactive about finding the right size.
If you’re looking at a lamp with a tripod base, make sure you have enough real estate on the floor and in the surrounding area so the lamp doesn’t feel cramped or is constantly being run into.
Height
Height is another factor to take into account. The higher the light source, the wider spread of the light. This is great for ambient lighting, but may be less ideal for task lighting where you want the light closer and more focused but out of the way so you aren’t bonking your head when you’re sitting next to it.
Also consider the scale of everything else in the room—if you have a penchant for low, platform-style furniture, make sure the lamp you choose isn’t going to tower cartoonishly above it all. Some floor lamps come with adjustable heights, which can be handy if you’re prone to switching things up often.
Finally, choose a floor lamp that allows the light source to be concealed outside of your eye level to avoid an uncomfortable glare. So if you’re standing nearby, the light source of the lamp should be covered by the shade.
Choose Your Layer of Floor Light
Perhaps most importantly, you should pick a floor lamp based on what type of lighting the room needs. Look to the three key layers of light to decide: Ambient, task and accent. Maybe you want warm ambient lighting, which an array of shaded floor lamps can provide. Or, maybe you just want some direct illumination to light up your reading chair with, in which case an arced reading lamp would be ideal. Or perhaps a torch here just to brighten up a corner and add some accent lighting. The style of light that the floor lamp emits should affect its placement as well, so make sure you get the right piece for the space.