Standing Floor Lamps

How to choose a floor lamp

Selecting a floor lamp becomes an easier process if you understand how you want to use it. Floor lamps come in many different designs and use different types of lighting.

Height: Do you want the lamp to provide task lighting for someone sitting on the couch? Or are you looking to light up an area of the room? Do you have tall ceilings? All of these considerations can help you select the height of the floor lamp you'll want to purchase. For example, as Homeclick says, a short lamp doesn't look great in a room with high ceilings.

Base: The base of the floor lamp plays a role in the sturdiness of the lamp. A lamp with a wide base will be more difficult to tip over than one with a small base. Lamp bases are available in wood, glass, ceramic, or metal.

Finish: The finish on the lamp usually carries through the pole, sockets, and base. Common finishes for floor lamps include antique bronze, oil-rubbed bronze, brushed nickel, and satin nickel, according to Lowe's.

Lampshade: Although some modern style floor lamps don't make use of lamp shades, you can add color and style to the lamp with a custom lampshade, as Pooky explains. The lamp shade also cuts down on the intensity of the light, as it shades your eyes from the light bulb. Different materials will allow different intensities of light to be visible through the lampshade.

Bow Large Arc Overreach Floor Lamp, Black and White Marble

If you grew up at a time when floor lamps were popular, you probably have a few memories of them. You almost certainly knocked one over at some point by running through the house or — even worse — playing ball in the house. Or, if you were lucky enough to have a floor lamp with a three-way bulb, you could spend hours entertaining yourself with the bright/brighter/brightest settings.

You may not have thought much about floor lamps lately. Or maybe that 100-year grounding your parents gave you after breaking the lamp as a kid technically remains in place, so you have a mental block about floor lamps. But modern floor lamps offer different and contemporary designs versus their counterparts from a few decades ago. Newer lamps may use LED lighting, which provides a pleasing type of lighting that's also cost-effective and efficient.