Best Floor Lamps for Modern Living: Embrace Contemporary Illumination

It’s that time of year when getting off the lounge seems like way too much effort. Instead, a comfortable chair, a good book and a warm beverage beckon. Making sure your living space works, whether you’re looking to create zones within an open plan, or you want to read without straining your eyes, depends on your choice of lighting. As well as being up to the task to create mood and function, these floor lamps make a style statement. We’ve selected the best, from classic designs to timeless contemporary to ensure your living areas are inviting, as well as inspiring.

Tote Standing Lamp

Tote Floor Lamp - Tide Design - Tide Design - Handmade Furniture

The classic shapes of the Tote standing lamp by Tide Design have been given a clean, contemporary feel with the added warmth of natural timber. It’s the perfect shape for those who love tradition with a side of biophilic design. Available in three timbers, from $1,430 from Workshopped.

Foscarini Twiggy floor lamp

Twiggy Floor Lamp White by Marc Sadler for Foscarini | Replica Lights

Made from coated fibreglass , coated metal and aluminium, the impossibly flexible Foscarini Twiggy floor lamp is ideal over lounges and cosy corners. From a design perspective, it breaks up strong lineal shapes associated with modular sofas. Plus, it creates pools of light perfect for zoning, $2,885 from Space.

Cliff 02 Lamp

Cliff 02 Lambert&Fils Floor Lamp - Milia Shop

The tripod base of the brass and black matte Cliff 02 lamp from the Lambert & Fils workshop adds extra stability with a contemporary edge. A study in minimalism, the brass finishes deliver a jewel-like finish to the supporting rods, $4,380 from Living Edge.

Copenhagen SC14 Lamp

Copenhagen SC14 Floor Lamp – Cult - Design First

Perfect for creating visual warmth on cold nights, the Copenhagen SC14 lamp by &Tradition emits a soft ambient light with the control of a dimmer option and opal glass shade, $2,448 from Cult

Alma Lamp

US designer Kelly Wearstler’s stunning Alma lamp has the solidity of a white marble base and the allure of an antique burnished brass base. The cylindrical head of the pharmacy floor lamp can rotate 20 degrees left or right to best direct light, $2,079 from Montauk Lighting.

Tonone Bolt 2 Arm Floor Lamp

This lamp is right at home in any room in the house, from the living room to the kids’ bedrooms. Adjustable at two points to allow a change of height, as well as direction, it has a steel base and rods with an aluminium shade. It’s also available in a range of colours suitable for contemporary or traditional interiors, $1100 from Mondopiero.

What light is best for living room lamps?

Lamps are an ideal way to create a sense of warmth in your living room but it’s critical to choose the right light bulbs to avoid your spaces looking like a convenience store. The colour temperature of lights are measured in Kelvins, with 2700k-3000k considered warm and 4000k-5000k considered cool light.

How much should you spend on a floor lamp?

The good news is floor lamps are available at a wide range of price points. Like most furniture, however, you get what you pay for. Prices for a reasonably good floor lamp start from $200 up to $5000 or more. Ensure it has at least a 12-month warranty.

What type of floor lamp gives off the most light?

This will depend on the type of lightbulb you use, as well as the style of lamp shade. Light intensity is measured in lumens and watts. A standard 40w lightbulb emits 450 lumens, while a 60w bulb emits 800 lumens. LED (light emitting diodes) lights output the most light in the most energy efficient way. A wider lampshade design will allow the light to extend its reach.

The Apple growth and profit machine is wavering, and the boost from price increases might not be enough to keep it going at historic rates. That dials up the pressure on Apple’s new chief executive, John Ternus.

The company saved the bad news for its earnings call, an hour after it posted its results for the September quarter, projecting that for the current quarter its high-margin services business will continue to slow and that its widely watched gross profit margin will continue to fall.

Apple AAPL -1.83%decrease; down pointing triangle shares had been flat in post-close trading but declined as much as 4% after the company made the projections, which fell short of Wall Street estimates.

The impact of high memory costs are weighing even more heavily on the company, Ternus and Apple Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh said on the company’s earnings call. Apple has stockpiled cheaper components purchased earlier, but those inventories are dwindling.

When Ternus took over as Apple’s third chief executive of the past 29 years on Sept. 1, he inherited sky-high expectations. The men he followed were among the most successful company leaders in American business history. Steve Jobs revolutionized consumer devices multiple times. Tim Cook expanded Jobs’s creation to spectacular heights.

The expectations are reflected in Apple’s huge valuation. Oppenheimer analyst Martin Yang noted that Apple stock trades at 36 times next year’s expected earnings, a premium to the overall market, even though its earnings are only expected to grow 1%, which is slower than its tech peers.

“We see insufficient upside to justify the premium,” Yang wrote in an investor note, adding that Apple needs to boost iPhone sales growth and turn around its slowing services business to make him more bullish.

Investors have bid up Apple shares because it has been a port in the AI storm—a reliable and capital-efficient business that stands apart from rivals which are spending hundreds of billions of dollars racing to the AI frontier.

While others invest in data centers, Apple has been pouring its own cash into buybacks and dividends. But that safety may be challenged if Ternus can’t speed up Apple’s innovation engine.

Apple’s lagging performance in AI was evident when its new “Siri AI” chatbot arrived this past quarter. Its long-maligned assistant was already stale the day it arrived, surpassed by agents such as Instinct and Muse that can complete multistep tasks for consumers, while Siri still sets kitchen timers.

Apple needs to give people reasons to buy its devices as they get more expensive. The company raised prices across the board last quarter to help offset higher costs. Without compelling new features, a big question is whether consumers will slow the frequency of iPhone upgrades.

The new iPhone Duo appears to be a bright spot. Consumers are scooping up the $1,999 foldable smartphone despite mixed reviews—so many that Apple can’t keep up with demand. Shipping dates jumped out to January soon after the device went on sale, a disappointment for the normally reliable Apple supply chain.

Apple said its revenue grew 12% in the September quarter, slightly ahead of Wall Street’s expectations. Its widely tracked gross profit margin, at 47.9%, also came in just ahead of analyst estimates.

Apple will need to find new growth avenues because a reliable engine during the Cook era—the services business—is slowing. Courts and regulators worldwide have limited Apple’s ability to charge developers big fees to distribute apps through its App Store, the biggest component of the company’s services segment.

One of its most lucrative App Store fee generators has been the ChatGPT app from OpenAI. Around the time Apple accused OpenAI of trade-secret theft this past summer, OpenAI began redirecting potential subscribers to pay via its website instead of the App Store, skirting Apple’s tollbooth.

Apple’s valuation has bumped up against a ceiling in recent weeks. Six times it traded above a $5 trillion market capitalization intraday before finally closing above the threshold, which it has already fallen back below.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply news through Apple services.