Where to position a Tiffany floor lamp

A floor lamp is the easiest way to put a large piece of stained glass into a room without giving up any surface. Ours stand 168 cm tall with a 40.6 cm shade and two bulbs, which is enough light to read by and enough presence to hold a corner on its own. Where you put it decides whether it looks planned or parked.

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OFFON

Beside a sofa or armchair

This is the position the lamp was designed for. Stand it at the end of the sofa, level with the arm, with the shade centred roughly 40 to 50 cm behind the front edge of the seat. The light then falls over the shoulder of whoever is sitting there and onto the page or the screen, not into their eyes. Because the shade is at about 150 cm, it sits above the sofa back and the glass is visible from across the room.

• Leave 20 to 30 cm between the shade edge and the wall so the pattern is not swallowed by shadow.
• Keep the base clear of the walkway. The base is designed to be stable, but it is still a tripping hazard if it sits in the route to the door.
• If the sofa floats in the room, put the lamp behind one end rather than beside it; from the front the shade appears to hover over the arm.

In a corner

An empty corner is where most floor lamps end up, and it works if the lamp is angled to face the room rather than pushed square into the angle. Pull it 30 cm out from both walls. In a corner the lamp lights two walls at once and the coloured glow spreads further than you would expect; a 40 cm shade in a corner will tint a whole small room in the evening.

In a reading corner

Pair the floor lamp with a single armchair and a small side table and you have a reading corner without any building work. Put the lamp on the side away from the door so the chair, not the lamp, is what you see first. See the reading corner collection.

READING CORNER · GEOMETRIC

BESIDE THE SOFA · DRAGONFLY

Height and eye line

At 168 cm the bottom of the shade is at roughly 125 cm. Sitting on a standard sofa your eye line is about 105 cm, so you look up into the glass slightly and never see the bulbs directly. Standing, you look across the shade. That is the correct relationship and it is why we do not offer a shorter floor lamp; a lamp with the shade at eye level shows you the bulbs from every seat.

Cable

The flex leaves the base and runs to the nearest socket. Run it along the skirting behind the sofa, never across an open floor. If the nearest socket is on the wrong side of a doorway, have a socket added rather than using an extension lead under a rug.

Bulbs

Two E27 bulbs, maximum 60 W each; we recommend two of our 7 W warm white filament LEDs. Two clear filament bulbs light both halves of the shade evenly. An in-line foot dimmer on the flex is the easiest way to control it. See the bulb guide.