Table and Floor Lamps, Planned Not Added

A room with good architectural lighting and no lamps still looks unfinished at night, because nothing is lit at the height people sit. Lamps are the eye-level layer, and when they are on the plan, on a switched receptacle or a plug-in dimmer tied to the room control, they come up with the scene instead of being hunted down one switch at a time.

I price lamps as part of a package for designers and builders in South Florida, and by the hundred for hotel guest rooms where the lamp is furniture, task light and charging station in one. The lines below are SESCO lines.

Putting portables on the plan

Show a switched receptacle or a plug-in dimming module wherever a lamp is intended, and note the lamp on the fixture schedule with its lamp type and dimming method like any other fixture. A floor receptacle under a sofa that floats in the room saves a cord across the floor. Where a control system is planned, the lamp module goes on the same scene as the ceiling so a single button sets the whole room.

Choosing the lamp

For reading, the bottom of the shade should sit about at eye level when seated, which puts most table lamps at 24 to 30 inches tall on a standard side table and floor lamps at 58 to 64 inches. A translucent shade lights the room; an opaque shade with an open top and bottom lights the page and the ceiling and keeps the glare off a screen. Match the color to the room, 2700K in most residential work, and ask for the CRI when the shade is open and the lamp shows.

Hospitality and multifamily

A guest-room lamp is specified by what it does as much as how it looks: a switch on the base or the socket, USB or wireless charging built in, a sturdy shade that survives housekeeping, and a UL listing that the brand can document. Better Designed Lighting and Evergreen build hospitality lamps to the drawing; Tala and Mullan cover the design-led boutique end; Lumen Center Italia, Panzeri and Lambert and Fils are the options when the interior designer is drawing the room around the lamp.

The lines

Tala makes decorative LED lamps and portables, including rechargeable table lamps for terraces and dining tables. Mullan is brass and copper from Ireland. Lumen Center Italia and Panzeri are Italian design; Lambert and Fils is modern and modular from Montreal; Maiizen and Better Designed Lighting cover softer shades and hospitality volume. Idaho Wood makes wood lamps and fixtures for rooms that call for it, and Braga and L'Originale extend their chandelier families into table lamps for traditional rooms.

What decides the spec