Best Desk Lamps

The color of your bedside lamps should match the rest of your bedroom. Consider a dark colored lamp if your bedroom set contains darker wood or stained wood. If your bedroom set is white, you can match the lamps with your bedding as opposed to the colors of the end tables.

You can also match materials of the same color; a dark metal headboard and matching end tables might mean dark metal lamps with white shades to complement your bedroom’s look.

Bright light (think: a sunny summer day) not only boosts your mood, it also makes you feel energized, awake, and alert. That’s great news during the daytime. But come sundown, exposure to artificial light that mimics natural light can be detrimental to your sleep by suppressing melatonin, your body’s slumber hormone.

Since you’re probably not about to hit the sack as soon as the sun goes down, the next best thing is to be smart about choosing light bulbs for your home.

Lamp Shades

Different lamp shades form various lighting effects. A glass lamp shade gives off a glow above the lamp with brighter light below it, while a lamp shade with a wide opening at the top brightens the area above your bedside table and reduces shadows. A directional shade, perfect for reading lights, narrows the light to a specific area.

The material and color of the shade will impact the light effect you get. A dark-colored lamp shade mutes the light given off the side of the lamp, but it focuses light above and below.

A metal lamp shade is completely opaque, and if you have a one-sided shade, it brightens either below or above the lamp but not both. A cream-colored sheer shade softens the light all around the table for a romantic feel.

Incandescent Bulbs

These are the most commonly-used light bulbs (think soft white, traditional-looking bulbs), and are generally inexpensive. They give off a diffuse, warm light, and typically last up to 1000 hours.

They are not particularly energy efficient, unfortunately, but after red bulbs (more on them, below), these are the second best types of bulbs to use in your bedroom. More at www.brandreviewly.com/choosing-the-best-lamp-for-your-night-table.

Bedroom Style

Your bedroom’s style plays a part in the type of bedside lamp to choose, whether you want Victorian, baroque, rustic, country, or art deco lamps. Country and rustic furniture is usually made of wood, whereas Victorian and baroque furniture comes in metal.

Contemporary styles come from the latest trends in interior decoration. Your lamp should match the decor of the rest of the room so the pieces blend with your bedroom set.

Halogen Bulbs

Similar to incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs give off the whitest light—they’re the closest you’ll get to daylight (which is why you may want to avoid using them after dusk). They also burn hot, and if you touch them and some of the oil on your skin rubs off on their surface, they can actually burst.

1.The White Company Mini Mercury Bottle Lamp

The White Company’s luxury lamp has a white linen shade and a mouth-blown glass base, designed to look like an antique bottle. The silver finish is the standout feature, and there are other pieces in the bedroom range to match. It takes a 60W bulb (not included), giving a good level of illumination for the bedside, or living room table too.

2.Target Contemporary Steel Table Lamp

Nothing fancy about this handsome lamp. What makes it a great reader’s option is the shape of the base, with an ample spot to drop your paperback or reading glasses onto.

3.Loaf Moonshot Lamp

A quality matte-black finish gives the simple silhouette of this lamp its wow factor. It has a contrasting base of solid white marble. The head is adjustable with a smooth ball and socket joint, making it a cinch to move around to your required position. There’s a smart braided black cable with an inline switch. Loaf recommends an E27 bulb, which is not included.

4.Black+Blum “Turn Me On”

Like the Elise above, the “Turn Me On” is notable for a space saving design; its form has been divided into a lamp half, with one side complete flat for easy positioning against a wall. The lamp hides two bulbs, one 60 watt bulb above and another 25 watt bottom bulb for an ambient glow.

5.Conran Monty Table Lamp

This product’s moveable headlamp is really meant for a home office, but at 30cm high, it’s small enough to make a great addition to the bedside table too.

Moving the handle on top of the lamp makes it swivel, allowing you to control the lighting atmosphere in your bedroom. The glass is patterned, meaning light is refracted to give a glow rather than a bright glare.

6.Diogenes floor lamp

Not really a bedside lamp, but a model that could be positioned bedside for a towering light source. We love the positionable light and the additional upward indirect lighting.

7.Wrong.London Turn On Lamp

This is a compact modern bedside lamp made of and aluminium and opal glass. Turning the faceted base acts a dimmer switch, the more you turn the brighter the lamp gets. There’s a choice of four anodised finishes in black, green, orange and natural aluminium. The lamp is fitted with a long-lasting LED bulb, and has a 3m cable.

The brightness of the light coming from a desk lamp or any other kind of light source helps determine the lighting effects. In addition to the right kind of lamp shade, you can achieve brighter light with various bulbs.

Compact fluorescent bulbs are brighter than traditional incandescent bulbs, while soft white light bulbs have a more muted effect because the outside glass diminishes the intensity of the inner part of the bulb. Look for the lumens rating on the bulb’s specifications, and don’t exceed the manufacturer’s recommended wattage for the lamp.

Typically small and dome-shaped (or clustered like dots into a larger bulb), LEDs use about 75 percent less energy than traditional bulbs. However, their light is often one-directional, so they’re not great for use all around the house—you generally find them in task lighting. LEDs also produce significantly more blue light than traditional bulbs. More at www.brandreviewly.com.