LITTLE ROCK — “Table lamps should be big and bold wherever possible,” says lighting designer Lucy Martin. “A pair of large table lamps on each side of a sofa or on a sofa-back table will frame an elevation effectively, and will provide a much better quality of light than randomly scattered small lamps.
“Very large table lamps obviously need a proportional space to sit well within. The use of dramatically tall statement-making table lamps is an increasingly important trend. Some are even designed to be more like works of art than just functional light sources.”
Fashionable table lamps embrace an extraordinary range of design styles.
There are animal-print bases and lampshades, rustic wood such as a base featuring stacked twigs and another resembling circular slices of a tree (from The Phillips Collection).
Midcentury modern-style sculptures are appealing, like Crate & Barrel’s three-legged brass Cleo lamp, or solid crystal blocks like the Thomas O’Brien lamps at Williams-Sonoma Home. Small pieces of shell, such as capiz, oyster or mother of pearl, produce mosaic effects. Even lampshades are studded with shells.
An elegant new design from Jamie Young Co. features a striped silver pillar base crafted from etched glass that catches the light, as does its platinum paper shade, softly hand-painted with birds and flowers.
There’s a playful bright orange coil lamp - simple electrical cording that coils around what appears to be an empty volume - actually a laser-cut Plexiglas form - in the iconic shape of a table lamp (see craightonberman. com).
A lamp called Glass Pebble from Palecek features asymmetrical green glass circles of varying sizes that resemble a necklace of set jewels. And a nearly 3-foot-high lamp designed by Joe Ruggiero has an open cylinder of wrought iron with an X in the center and sides shaped with antique gold branches, which lend an organic look.
Some companies, such as Vivify Lighting, see the lamp as an artistic centerpiece. That company’s hand-blown American glass lamps come in a rainbow of hues, including kiwi, violet and merlot.
Even in a small foyer, with room only for a very small table, lamplight provides a gracious ambience. On a long bureau, a lamp can break up a horizontal pattern of books, picture frames and art objects. An overlooked but effective spot for a table lamp is in a powder room, where it lends a cozy glow.
HomeStyle, Pages 39 on 02/26/2011