Floor Lamps Tips

Qualities of Light

Because floor lamps are often used for reading or other close work, it's important to pay attention to the kind of lighting you'll get from it.

Many people find they experience less eye fatigue with a full spectrum floor lamp. In addition, full-spectrum bulbs are credited with helping people who have seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and experience depressive symptoms in the winter months.

Halogen floor lamps have been popular for some time because they shed a very bright light from a single bulb. Fluorescent floor lamps are very energy-efficient, but may not be the best choice for close work, as some people find they fatigue the eyes.

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Floor Lamp Styles

Whatever your decorating style, there's a floor lamp to meet your needs. Here are a few of the options:

• Black floor lamps look best in offices, kitchens or other no-nonsense working areas.
• Brass floor lamps are bright, but also carry a sense of formality. They look good in a living room or guest room.
• Bronze floor lamps tend to blend in, providing a tasteful but not attention-getting touch. Good practically anywhere.
• Chrome floor lamps provide a modern sensibility combined with a sense of solidity. Good for dining rooms and bathrooms.
• Gooseneck floor lamps speak of modernity, and work best when they are at their most functional, in studies and kids' rooms.
• Stained glass floor lamps are beautiful and attention-getting, with a touch of retro style, and can be used as one of the focal points of a room.

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Floor Lamp and Table Combos

Floor Lamp Guide: You've just moved and you got rid of that great country end table in your family room. Unfortunately, your new family room is, as the real estate agent advertised, "cozy." What if there were a way you could combine that vital floor lamp with your country end table? As they say on television, "You can!"

A country casual oak table floor lamp combines a classic wooden base floor lamp with a sturdy table top and sometimes a magazine rack! Since you may feel as if you're in a country cottage and your TV (gasp) hasn't been hooked up yet, this is perfect—just you, your new table lamp, an easy chair and the paper. A great way to reduce moving stress!

Most of your lighting isn't installed either, so you'll be happy to know that many furniture floor lamp combos include a night light—great for quieting your kids when they wonder why in the world you ever moved here. Now, while you sit near your new floor lamp, you wonder if your new neighbors always play their music this loud. Maybe it's time to invite them over so they can exclaim over how you've made the place so homey since you moved in two days ago!

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Coordinated Table and Floor Lamp Sets

Floor Lamp Guide: Your uncle bought that tropical floor lamp and placed it near a Tiffany table lamp. You still have nightmares that you've inherited bad taste. Not to worry. Take this advice:

• To the rescue—four-piece traditional lamp sets with table lamps and a classic floor lamp. If you don't like the clone effect, try our suggestions for coordinating table lamps and floor lamps.
• You can match a glass-and-bronze tropical contemporary floor lamp with bamboo-shaded table lamps.
• A metallic halogen floor lamp pairs perfectly with brushed steel and antique silver table lamps.
• Try a five-downlight floor lamp on one end of the couch and an octopi table lamp on the opposite end.

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The Right Height For Reading

Floor Lamp Guide: Your modern floor lamp is so close to your head you're starting to sweat like the innocent falsely accused hero of the crime novel you're engrossed in. You may be in too high a chair. Your typical halogen floor lamp is 60-62 inches high. Most recliners are, on average, 40 inches high, so that the light from your classic floor lamp can spread warmly over your gripping biography or newspaper.

Many floor lamps are adjustable, and with swing-arm function, you can vary the position of the lamp. On the other hand, the double pharmacy halogen floor lamp design can adjust from 35 inches to 55 inches. Keep the 40-inch benchmark in mind when you're choosing the right height. You can shine the lower arm on your lap if you're studying calculus, but make sure you're getting uncomfortable trying to memorize the material rather than trying to cope with a floor lamp that's the wrong height.

So, if that Stephen King novel has you suddenly hot and frightened, you've probably jumped out of your chair and come too close to the light bulb.

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Carrying a Torchiere

Floor Lamp Guide: So, you think torchiere lamps are just the coolest thing around? It's got to be the "torch" aspect. The torchiere classic floor lamp can come shaped like a wood nymph, which conjures up images of ancient Greek parties with gods drinking wine and eating ambrosia. Or your torchiere contemporary floor lamp can have five lights like a creature out of science fiction.

• It's up to you to make sure the torch is always lit. Keep your torchiere halogen floor lamp supplied with the appropriate bulbs—consider it paying homage to the gods.
• Keep that wood nymph beautiful—wipe the base and the lampshade with soft cloths. Don't use harsh chemical cleaners or your nymph might look too scantily clad!

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Dark Corners and Floor Lamps

Floor Lamp Guide: Dark corners giving you that eerie don't-go-in-there-alone feeling? Don't scream, bring a torch…a torchiere, that is. Also follow this advice:

• You need layers of light in a room. You have the recessed lighting, the uplights, the spotlights, the table lamps and wall sconces, plus dimmer switches. You have floor lamps too, but you think they're just for reading. Not so. The new trend in lighting design is to place floor lamps in dark corners, according to HGTV'S "Smart Design."
• A classic floor lamp or contemporary floor lamp, torchiere or otherwise, will dispel shadows in corners where there isn't much general light. Be sure to choose a lamp with a fabric or glass shade that can focus light beams on the cornices and walls. A torchiere halogen floor lamp in particular bounces light up onto a ceiling and adds general illumination.
• Try a fun handpainted bulb behind a white shade to dispel that fear of the dark.
• So you like the eerie feeling? Choose a flicker bulb that gives that Phantom of the Opera candlelight-in-corners atmosphere. It still may be a good idea not to go in a dimly lit room alone. Look out behind you!

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Torchiere Utilization

Torchiere lamps can add an elegant appeal to any room. They are tall and sleek and come in a wide range of styles, shapes, and colors to blend in with any home decor. When selecting one, make sure that it won't stick out like a sore thumb (choose a color or material that will compliment your other furniture and accessories).

To get more out of your torchieres you don't need a floor lamp guide, you just need to think light. Light colored paints, wallpapers, and furnishings reflect light well. By using a light color scheme, your room will appear brighter with less lighting fixtures.

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Floor Lamp Contemporary Choices

Floor Lamp Guide: You're a classic wild child with a daring side. You disdain the traditional romance of the Kathy Ireland floor lamp lighting collection. You demand something unusual, a truly contemporary floor lamp. Want some floor-show floor lamp ideas?

• Multi-Color Glass Cube Floor Lamp with minimalist frame and four cube-shaped glass shades
• Three Light Blue Glass Gooseneck Floor Lamp with blue uplights that look like alien or Picasso-esque eyes
• Glendale Lifestyle Collection Paper Shade Floor Lamp--don't worry, no fire hazard here!
• Cubist George Kovacs Bronze Mini-Tower Floor Lamp
• Japanese-style Kabuki Floor Lamp for a touch of Tokyo

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Classic Floor Lamps, Modern Times

Floor Lamp Guide: Your living room is so computerized you feel like you're living the life of the Jetsons. You have high-tech design and all-metal-and-white furnishings but something is missing—you're hesitant to get a contemporary floor lamp. Perhaps the times they are a-changing back to classic style? Even high-tech Silicon Valley geniuses need beauty and romanticism.

A classic floor lamp, say a Tiffany Art Glass Floor Lamp, or iron scroll floor lamps with trays satisfy an aesthetic need. A streamlined contemporary setting makes a classic floor lamp stand out in a good way. We're surrounded by so many sophisticated home elements that we don't know what to be impressed by. Simplicity and classic style can add harmony and focus. But you can't ignore the lure of your Blackberry and digital cable.

Shop online, buy a Kathy Ireland Grand European Torchiere Floor Lamp, then shut off all the high-tech devices and enjoy the pure beauty of light from your classic floor lamp.

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Hip To Be Square Floor Lamps

Floor Lamp Guide: Elvis sang "You're so square, baby, I don't care." Then in the 1980s, Huey Lewis and the News belted out, "It's hip to be square." Square floor lamps are hip too, every bit as welcome in a room as the rounded variety.

Many a contemporary floor lamp and classic floor lamp combines round lampshades with square bases. The contrast is inspired! We especially like the Mission style floor lamps with square geometric lines. Square-base floor lamps frame an easy chair, echoing the straightness of the chair back, while round lampshades gently shine reading light on your face and lap. A halogen floor lamp with a square base positioned near a window (just be careful if it's a torchiere) duplicates the geometric lines of the window.

The symmetry is visually pleasing and the extra light is a comfort at night. Elvis thought it was cool to be square, and so did Huey Lewis and the News. In a rock band's mansion, or in Graceland, you can bet square-base floor lamps would be hip too.

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