Lamps for the living room – read our guide and choose the right one

There are all sorts of living room lamps to choose from and many questions to answer about placement, style, price and combining different lamps.

As a first step, it’s a good idea to ask yourself exactly what your practical needs are. Then you can make a decision about how you want your new lamp/s to look – are you going for a specific style of classic design lamp, or are you more concerned with how you want your living room to be lit?

To help you out, we’ll give you our best advice about lighting a living room so you can find exactly the right living room lamp to decorate your home.

Which wall lamps can be used in the living room?

Which wall lamps can be used in the living room?

New trends are popping up all the time, and when it comes to wall lamps for the living room we see a clear trend for size and flexibility.

Lampe Gras is an incredibly popular brand and they have a wide selection of wall lamps in their collection. You can find lamps that are mounted directly on the wall or on a rod, as in the picture. They’re available in different lengths and colours, and you can choose how many joints you want on the arm. Lampe Gras lamps are amazingly flexible and therefore very useful in the living room since you can adjust them to shine light just where you need it.

Image courtesy of our customer @camillaathena via Instagram
The 214 wall lamp from Lampe Gras is a model that we see in many homes. We think that’s because it’s so incredibly flexible and because it works so well in Nordic-style interiors. You can adjust the lamp up and down as well as move the arm and the lamp head, so you get a useful and flexible lamp in a stylish and attractive package. (And there are no screws or welded joints in the basic form!)

See our selection of Lampe Gras here and be inspired.

Image courtesy of our customer @lk.living via Instagram

Another popular wall lamp is Mantis BS2 from Schottlander. It’s a well-designed and slightly unusual lamp that fits today’s decorating trends and interior styles.

Mantis BS2 is part of a fascinating series of lamps with an elegant industrial look – design that will never look dated. It’s hard to believe that the Mantis series was created in 1951, and in spite of its age it’s more popular today than ever.

Via a system of counterweights, the lamp can be easily and elegantly set in four different positions and depending on the exact model the head can be tilted and rotated between 180º and 360º.  
Mantis is elegant and stylish and we’re seeing it more and more often. We think it’s because it has become more acceptable to shift away from traditional styles that larger wall lamps are such a hit. We’re not saying that small wall lamps are out – we also see lots of AJ wall lamps, Caravaggio Reads, smaller wall models from Lampe Gras and others – but it’s no secret that today’s modern choice of wall lamp is big, beautiful and eye-catching.

Image courtesy of our customer @palettenoir via Instagram

A third popular wall lamp is the 265 from Flos. This is a truly beautiful and useful lamp that gives a quality direct light and can easily be used over your coffee table.

One great thing about the 265 is that it doesn’t require a lot of wall space. Its mounting hardware is very small for a lamp of its size, and you end up with an incredibly flexible lamp that can illuminate a surprisingly large area. Its long arm means you can position the lamp head precisely where you need it and the counterweight makes the lamp’s movements easy and elegant.

Image courtesy of our customer @mittlillehjerte via Instagram

Lamps for the living room – is an inexpensive choice a bad choice?

We’re often asked if cheaper lamps are a bad choice. But what is cheap and what is expensive? At Lampmasters we only carry quality lamps, but at several different price levels!

It’s largely a question of what your needs are. Do you need a lamp that’s dimmable or just something you can turn on and off? Should it have a built-in energy saving LED module or is the light source irrelevant? Some customers are looking for a classic design lamp, but they’re also available at different price levels so you can always find one that’s less expensive than the others.

It’s a difficult question, but one thing we’re sure of is that our quality lamps are available at a range of prices – we can meet both your needs and your budget.

Where can you use pendants and hanging lamps in the living room?

Where can you use pendants and hanging lamps in the living room?

Lighting is one of the most important considerations when it comes to decorating your living room. It has a huge impact on how you experience the room and you can easily change the mood by changing the lighting. Today, living room lamps are beautiful design objects – they both decorate and create atmosphere, so there’s no need to limit them to just hanging over a table.

Take this image, for example, with a Tom Dixon Etch pendant in brass hanging over the sofa. It could just as easily hang over a sideboard or in a corner with an armchair and a little side table. You can create ’hygge stations’ all over you living room!
In the second image you can see two Etch mini pendants, also from Tom Dixon. They’re hanging right in the middle of a wall – a non-traditional position, but one that we think is effective and looks great. Just remember that you should hang them in harmony with their surroundings, almost like you were composing a still-life. That way you can best appreciate their beauty as objects as well as the beautiful way they illuminate your living room.

Etch pendants cast the most beautiful shadows and are a great choice if you’re looking for mood lighting. If you’re looking for more direct light without shadows, just choose a different bulb. For example, an Etch over the coffee or dining table would work best with a bulb that projected light downwards onto the surface of the table.

Image courtesy of our customer @krea_pernille via Instagram

Cool living room lamps – what’s hot right now?

Cool living room lamps – what’s hot right now?

What’s hot right now are Nordic-inspired interiors and you can find a wealth of smart, beautiful and functional living room lamps that complement that style. Since we’ve already taken a look at wall lamps and pendants, we’d like to suggest a few of the hottest table and floor lamps to use in your living room.

The first suggestion is a classic PH lamp. Here you can see a PH 3/2 Table and a PH 3½-2½ Floor in two different homes that share a similar style – grey walls and minimalist and stylish décor. We’ve heard that some people think these are lamps for the older generation, but they’re actually extremely popular across every age group. We see them just as frequently in the homes of young people since we’re living in a time when people are willing to spend a bit more money on quality and great design.
Both lamps are members of the 3-shade family, which today contains 20 models including three outdoor lamps. Poul Henningsen developed the 3-shade system in 1925-1926, when he was designing lamps for Louis Poulsen to be shown at an international exhibition is Paris. Throughout his life Henningsen worked on creating glare-free lighting, and he ended up not with a single lamp but with an entire system – the beautiful PH lamps that we know today. A PH lamp’s number refers to the size of its shade – a PH 3½/2½ has an overshade with a diameter of ca. 35 cm.

If you’re interested in learning more about the classic PH lamp you can find the whole series here.

Images courtesy of @bytved  and our customer @valdealma and via Instagram

Another popular lamp series is AJ from Louis Poulsen. These lamps are as familiar as old friends and can be found in many homes because of their classic and stylish look.

AJ Table doesn’t take up much space so it’s particularly well-suited to a sideboard or windowsill. The shade can be adjusted up and down so you’re able to shine the light exactly where you need it. AJ can also be used in the office or bedroom, so when you buy an AJ lamp you’ve always got a perfect place to put it.
At Lampmasters, we practice what we preach – here you can see an AJ Table and an AJ Floor in the living room of our social media guru, Jannie. It’s clear that – because of their simplicity - you can use different models from this series in the same room without it being too much of a good thing. Jannie has just moved the AJ Table into her home office and replaced it with a PH 3/2  – the AJ actually moves around frequently, more proof that these lamps work in lots of different environments.

This is also a great idea if you think a room needs some freshening up. New and different light makes a big difference, so try switching some of your lamps around if it’s time for a change.

Images courtesy of @bytved via Instagram
Here’s another AJ Floor – a lovely lamp that fits into lots of different decorating schemes. It looks wonderful next to the Kabe coloured-plaster wall, beautiful grey Kähler candleholders and an AC2 chair from Andersen Furniture. The décor is complete, and the AJ Floor completes the décor.

Image courtesy of @solgt_til_stanglakrids via Instagram

Panthella MINI from Louis Poulsen is another very popular living room lamp. It’s a relatively new model but can already be found in many homes. Panthella MINI has a diameter of only 25cm, and because of its small size you can use in lots of different situations.

It’s available in pink, red, purple, blue, orange, yellow, two shades of green, white, black, sparkling new chrome and opal acrylic as shown in the picture.

It has a built-in LED light source and a 3-step dimmer, so this design lamp from Louis Poulsen is both super-gorgeous and really useful.

Panthella MINI is made with a metal screen, which was Verner Panton’s original idea with the lamp in 1971 but couldn’t be fabricated with the technology available at the time. The metal shade is white on the inside, which reflects the light down towards the foot and then up into the room – a really lovely lamp that will work everywhere.
Panthella MINI in opal, as shown here, really stands out from the flock since the rest of the range uses metal shades. If you choose opal acrylic the whole screen will be illuminated, so it’s a good idea to think through your lighting needs before you decide on which Panthella MINI to buy.

Image courtesy of our customer @homehappydk via Instagram

When it comes it popular living room lamps, we can’t forget the sweet Flowerpot VP3 from &tradition.  It’s a bestseller that will never go out of fashion. VP3 was designed by Verner Panton and is also available as a pendant in two different sizes and in a range of gorgeous colours. Here at Lampmasters the clear bestselling colour is matte light grey, and the new matte black is also successful - you can see it  here.

Use Flowerpot in the living room, on your bedside table or in the kids’ room – with this lovely design classic the possibilities are endless.

See the whole Flowerpot range here.

Image courtesy of our customer @_bylilli via Instagram