Boho Floor Lamps with Handwoven Rattan Shades

A floor lamp wins wherever there is no surface to put a lamp on. The corner beside a sofa, the end of a bed, the gap between an armchair and a window. It also wins when the surfaces you do have are already full, which in most living rooms they are.

A table lamp wins where you need light on a specific task at close range, like a bedside book. One lamp in this range doubles as both: the vintage wicker piece can be used standing or set on a low table.

The other advantage is reversibility. Nothing is fixed to the building, so the lamp moves with you and can be repositioned seasonally as the room gets used differently.

Shade shape decides direction. An open cylinder or drum sends light up and down in roughly equal measure, which lifts a low ceiling. A closed dome pushes most of it downward into a pool, which is what you want beside a reading chair.

The weave then decides how much escapes sideways. Loose weaves glow across the whole shade and throw pattern onto the nearby wall, which is the effect most people are actually buying. Tight weaves keep the light contained and read more as a solid shape when lit.

Because these shades are open at the sides, keep the bulb wattage modest and stay between 2700K and 3000K. A cool bulb makes rattan look grey and flattens the texture completely.

Corners are the default and they work, but the better position is usually just off the corner, beside the piece of furniture you use most. A lamp tight into a corner lights the corner. A lamp a step out from it lights you.

In a bedroom, a standing lamp at the foot of the bed or beside a chair gives you an evening light that does not involve the overhead. In a living room, one at each end of a sofa run reads as deliberate where a single one can look stranded.

Leave room for the shade. These are wider than a metal standing lamp of the same height, so measure the diameter against the gap between furniture before ordering rather than after.