Table Lamps Lighting

When you’re planning a lighting scheme for your home or office, table lamps are extremely versatile, and to get the most of them, it helps if you’re aware of what role you’d like them to play. Previous articles looked at ambient and accent lighting types, and in this third installment, let’s look at a type of lighting that table lamps were made for: decorative lighting.

What is decorative lighting?

Decorative lighting is not designed primarily to provide usable lighting, but rather to serve as a design element in itself. It’s the opposite of ambient lighting: instead of providing a light that spreads throughout your room, the light it creates may not extend very far at all; and instead of the light source hiding in the background, decorative table lamps demand to be noticed!

Think of a decorative table lamp as an ornament that happens to light up, and you’re nearly there.

Types of decorative table lamps

There are many types of table lamps that can be considered decorative, and can be used as a centerpiece in any room. Here are a few sample techniques to look out for:

Stained Glass

Glass has been used in table lamps for many generations, and over time, its properties have been used creatively to great effect. Probably the best known example of this comes with Tiffany Lamps, where organic, flowing shapes are constructed out of many pieces of stained glass. Colored glass does restrict the amount of light that passes through, but it does light up beautifully, forming a focal point in your room that’s bound to impress!

Crystal

Cut glass plays wonderfully with light, with many little prisms splitting light up into a spectrum of colors. It also creates a dappled effect throughout a room, and when the crystal shards sway, you get an effect reminiscent of a bright summer’s day by a stream. Crystal table lamps are almost hypnotic to watch.

Translucence

Many materials are translucent, meaning that it allows light to pass through, but the light becomes diffused. In other words, you can see light coming through, but you can’t see clearly through the material. This phenomenon is widely used by table lamps, for example, with textured paper lamp shades producing a more attractive light source. Other materials include frosted glass and various fabrics, and work well because they obscure the light bulb, and almost become a more interesting light source in themselves.

Creative Bases

In some decorative table lamps, the base itself is the focal point, with the light serving only to enhance it. Some Art Deco designs, for example, are more like sculptures than lamps, and the light source exists simply to show the base at its best. There are some beautiful designs that fall into this category in a wide range of styles.

Other Table Lamps

Image of Fiber Optic Table Lamp: Wikimedia Commons

Some designers have produced incredible ideas when designing decorative table lamps. Fiber optics, for example, have limited lighting value in a home, but used as a decoration, and they can really capture the attention of anybody entering a room.

If you’re trying to add some focus to your interior design, a decorative table lamp is one of the most impressive, and cost effective ways of achieving it. Whether your style is traditional or contemporary, there are many outstanding examples to choose from!

Main image credit: Wikimedia Commons

In the first part of our look at lighting types, we discussed some ideas for using table lamps as ambient lighting. This is a great start for any lighting scheme, and table lamps are perfect for creating an overall atmosphere, and experimenting with different locations.

However, if your ambient lighting is leaving shadows a little flat, you can add some real visual interest by adding another type of lighting. There are several options available, and table lamps can fulfill many roles, but in this article, we’re going to take a closer look at accent lighting.

What is accent lighting?

Accent lighting is used to highlight a feature or object in a room. The lamp itself doesn’t command any attention, because its purpose is to draw the eye to a specific part of the room.

The object being highlighted can be anything: a picture, a piece of furniture, an interesting architectural feature, or even just a wall. It is important that the lamp focuses on the object strongly, without highlighting too much of its surroundings.

Using a table lamp for accenting

Once again, using a table lamp is a great idea, because you can reposition them easily to highlight a feature from the best possible angle. Choosing an opaque lamp shade works best, because it concentrates the light on a smaller area, making it more dramatic.

Also pay attention to the type of light bulb used. A reflector bulb will force the light upwards, rather than letting it spill out underneath too. Using a smaller light bulb can also work great, because the smaller light source produces sharper shadows, which contrast wonderfully against the softer shadows produced by ambient lighting.

Creative use of accent light

Think about what you want to highlight in your room, and consider how light and shadow will frame it. For example, accenting a flat picture may look good, but if the picture is framed or block mounted, a table lamp underneath will cast a dramatic shadow above it.

Similarly, anything that can cast a shadow should be experimented with: place a table lamp in front of a heavily textured wall, for example, or behind a small sculpture to throw it into dramatic silhouette.

Look at any attractive metal objects: old copper kettles, attractive ornaments, and so on. Accenting these can add lots of visual impact, because they cast beautiful light effects to complement strong shadows. Just be careful that the reflections shine onto a wall or other surface, rather than into people’s eyes! Once again, because table lamps are so portable, you can experiment easily until you have the right positioning.

Although table lamps can create a wonderful atmosphere in any room, it’s also nice to use them to highlight something interesting too, whether it’s the smallest ornament, or a feature wall. The trick, as always, is to keep it simple. Highlighting every object is usually too visually confusing, but accenting a carefully chosen feature with the right table lamp will add a dramatic focal point to every room!

Image Credit: stock.xchng

Ambient light is one of the most fundamental types of lighting available. Unlike spotlights, for example, ambient light seems to come from everywhere at once, and depending on the brightness used, can be very practical (suitable for when you’re cleaning the house, for example), or very subtle (like a cozy background light that works well when you’re watching TV).

One of the characteristics of ambient light is that the light source itself often isn’t immediately obvious. It doesn’t add drama to a room, because the shadows it casts are very soft, but it does set the tone. To achieve such an effect relies on technical sounding terms like diffusion and reflection. Don’t be put off though, because in practice, it’s quite simple really!

Diffusion

If you have a table lamp sitting in the center of a room, with no lamp shade, and a standard light bulb, it would likely draw a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. A stark, glaring light source is uncomfortable to look at, but difficult to avoid. The rest of the room would be filled with high contrast light and shadow, which is hardly an ideal environment to relax in!

To improve things somewhat, the light needs to be diffused. By the simple addition of a translucent lamp shade, light from the bulb is partially subdued, then scattered (or diffused) more evenly throughout your room.

By toning down the source of the light, and spreading out its effect, your room instantly becomes more comfortable to be in. But the light source is still the center of attention, so another factor has to be considered: Reflection.

Reflection

Light doesn’t just stop when it hits a physical object. It always reacts, usually through diffusion, or reflection. Although the level of light diminishes, a certain amount will bounce off surfaces and continue to light other objects. If it didn’t do this, it would never reach our eyes!

This type of reflection can be used to our advantage when planning a lighting scheme for our home. By placing a table lamp close to a large surface, like a wall, or on a high shelf near the ceiling, the surface becomes a secondary light source too, softening any hard shadows caused by the original light bulb.

Using a table lamp gives you the luxury of being able to try out different locations and effects. A wall with a matte surface will scatter the light nicely, while a colored surface will add a distinct character to the overall atmosphere. Experiment and see what works best for your home.

The Table Lamp Advantage

Table lamps are great for ambient lighting, as they are so easy to move around. You can change the ambiance of a room simply by moving it away from a white wall, and placing it beside a burgundy curtain instead.

The important factors, I believe, are the position of the light, and the lamp shade you choose. Many table lamps have opaque shades, which is more difficult to use for ambient light, as you have to rely on reflection. However, attractive translucent shades are abundantly available these days, made out of paper, fabrics, ground glass, plastic and other materials.

For a complete lighting design, ambient light is often complemented by other, more dramatic types of lighting. It is the bedrock upon which other lights can add their dramatic effects, as we’ll be discussing in other articles. Be creative with ambient light, as table lamps allow you to be, and your rooms will be all the richer for it!

Image Credit: stock.xchng