Floor Lamps

1. Define your style: whether contemporary, traditional, Victorian, vintage, or retro, these lamps are accents that depict individual tastes. Choices of incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen bulbs offer soft and warm (incandescent) or bright and cool (fluorescent) effects, as well as high-intensity (halogen) lighting.

2. Torchiere floor lamps are perfect for ambient lighting, using bowl-shaped shades to focus light upward and operating off of high-intensity halogen bulbs or any desired standard bulb. Torchiere lamps with dimmer switches offer mood lighting and are energy-efficient.

3. Space, width, placement, and light level of floor lamps is important. To protect eyes from exposure to glare, the top edge of an uplight model should be above the eye level of people standing; the lower edge of a reading lamp should be below the eye level of seated people.

4. They also offer various power switches - traditional rotating switches, chain pulls, touch-on switches, remotes, or operation from wall switches. Power switches should be easily accessible to avoid awkward reaching and tipping of lamps; lamp bases should be weighted and wide enough to maintain stability.

5. To make rooms interesting, vary the height of the lamps throughout the room. The differing heights add depth and create separate areas of light and shade.

6. To cut energy costs, reduce the number of lamps in a room, and use table and floor lamps that focus on task lighting for general lighting or for reading. Task lighting focuses light on primary tasks performed and reduces eyestrain by providing light that is three or four times brighter than the surrounding light.

7. Lamp shades can add or detract from the appearance of a floor lamp. Transparent lampshades offer the maximum amount of light, while opaque shades focus light downward and are best suited for task lighting.