Lighting is essential to keep the office bright and alive. It is also required for setting the tone for product work in many offices.
In several settings, floor lamps are used to brighten the room and make office work progress.
Floor lamps have been in use for many years to supplement natural lighting in homes and offices.
Floor lamps come in various styles and designs and with various features to fit your specific office need.
If you are looking for the best floor lamp for office with any specifications for function or aesthetics, there’s definitely an option for you!
What to Look for in Buying a Floor Lamp for Office?
Before looking through catalogs of floor lamps, you need to know what exactly you are looking for in a floor lamp for your office.
1. What is your purpose?
Half of the time office floor lamps are mostly used for aesthetic reasons. These types of lamps are chosen based on the quality of their material, their features and design, and how it contributes to the overall décor of your office.
The lighting that this kind of office lamp provides only adds to the overall feel and texture of your office rather than for any other purpose.
A task floor lamp for the office is part of the process of your workflow, and important for focused lighting to the work you do.
If you want a floor lamp that only illuminates a specific area and provides a specific focus required when performing a task, then a task floor lamp for the office might be what you need.
Aside from work and aesthetics, you might need an office floor lamp to act as a major or supplementary lighting source in your office.
Getting an ambient office floor lamp, helps to contribute to your office lighting without sacrificing aesthetics.
It efficiently illuminates the whole area in your dark office, and the best type will largely depend on the dimension of your office space.
2. What is the lighting standard of a floor lamp to light up an office?
Several factors contribute to your office lighting and being familiar with the terms helps you to understand what you’re buying.
Lighting is measured in lumens, which simply explains how much bright light a lighting source has available.
In more technical terms, it describes the intensity of light emitted at a solid angle by a light source.
You may also consider choosing a lamp based on watts, which describes the amount of energy a light source is sending out.
The color temperature of the lighting source is equally important. It describes how warm or cool the lighting source is and they play different roles in improving your office lighting.
So, how many lumens floor lamps are suitable for office use?
Depending on your type of office and brightness requirements, you may go for an office floor lamp that gives off a minimum of 100 lumens per square foot.
The more your lighting needs, the more lumens you’ll require, or at best, you might have to position more than one floor lamp in the office to do the job.
How many watts are required for an office floor lamp?
It’s important there’s sufficient natural lighting in an office environment, and if not, secondary lighting sources should be used to make up for it.
If you’re choosing a floor lamp based on wattage, you may go for lamps of above 60 watts, they can produce at least 850 lumens of light, hence the higher the wattage the higher the supply in lumens.
Also, choose floor lamps of over 5000k to mimic natural light, if you’ll be using the floor lamp for ambient or task lighting. You may choose cooler temperatures of less than 5000k if the floor lamp is more decorative than functional, or otherwise used to light up dark corners.
What bulb floor lamp is best for office?
While there are various options available for lighting up the office space, its best to choose floor lamps with led bulbs for office use.
Led lighting has been identified to help improve mood during work hours without the side effects that are associated with fluorescent and incandescent bulbs.
3. Why consider a natural light floor lamp to light up your computer?
Natural light floor lamps provide brightness that mimics daylight in your office.
It helps to boost your mood by giving the feel of natural daylight, which helps to set off the body for productive work.
A natural light floor lamp helps to eliminate the risk of high strains that come from your computer glare, as it diffuses the direct impact of the light from your computer on your face.
4. How to choose the floor lamp height for the office?
It’s important that office floor lamps have a relatively tall height, such that they can provide lighting well above the ground level.
It’s more important if you’ll be using it as task lighting, it needs to be tall enough to reach beyond the table, without serving as a distraction or obstruction to your workflow.
Choose a floor lamp that’s up between 4-5 ft. tall, this will help it to reach beyond the shoulder level and even serve as a source of overhead light where necessary.
You may also choose a floor lamp with an adjustable height hence you can position it at an angle that suits your workflow.
All office floor lamps do not have to be tall; you only need tall lamps if they would be used as ambient lighting or task lighting during work hours, such that they can be a convenient substitute for desk lamps, especially if you don’t have the luxury of space for one.
However, you may not always need a tall lamp, if you’d be using it as an accent piece, except when the height is an important part of the décor.
5. Do you have to match your office interior?
Your choice of a floor lamp is an important aspect of your office interior, hence while it might not be a direct match to major elements in your office, you may choose a lamp as an accent piece for your interior décor.
You may look out for sleek futures that match other elements in the office.
For instance, a floor lamp with a sleek metal profile can be used to pair with another metal decorative piece on your desk.
Also, the shades of some lamps could have colorful art glasses or fabrics forming patterns, creating a beautiful ray of light when lighted.
Always consider how well a floor lamp you’re buying pairs with your interior design, while you consider the functionality you’re getting from it.
6. When to buy an office floor lamp with remote?
Floor Lamps with remotes or external switches are worth buying in the office, as such lamps offer the convenience of controlling the brightness, color temperature, and other features that the lamp may have from the comfort of your seat.
Using a floor lamp might become a problem if you have to leave your seat to control or switch it on or off, especially when it’s not positioned close to your work table.
The remote control helps you to handle the lamp with convenience, hence you can remotely power the lamp on or off at the start or close of work.
7. How much does an office floor lamp cost?
Averagely, floor lamps cost more than hanging lamps or desk lamps.
The price variation is often due to the features that are packed into a desk lamp, and the fact that it requires more detail than other lamp types.
Also, floor lamps require a sturdy base build, versatility, and many other design concerns that make them relevant in any space.
More so, floor lamps offer lighting options, and may even give up to 5000k lumens of light, hence the reason they often cost more.
Generally, a floor lamp will cost over $50 for those that won’t require as many features.
However, the more detailed the features of a floor lamp, the more likely it would be more expensive in hundreds of dollars.
Why LED Floor Lamp Is the Best Choice for Office Use?
Led floor lamps use small Light Emitting Diodes (LED) to output light while efficiently using up the energy.
Usually, a led lamp will contain layers of well-arranged led using plug-in screws or screw-in bulbs housing the led elements.
They also last longer than other types of light sources and could appear as white, neutral, or natural light resembling natural daylight.
Using led floor lamps in the office helps to create a conducive environment to make work easier, and save costs on office lighting bills.
Floor Lamp with Regular Brightness vs Bright Floor Lamp: How to Choose for Office Use?
While you have a choice to decide what kind of floor lamp you want, you must have determined beforehand how much lighting you want from it. According to the US GSA, you’ll need up to 500 lumens for a square meter of your workstation.
Hence the dimension of your office plays a critical role in how much lighting you already need.
You may require an office floor lamp with regular brightness to compensate for areas without sufficient lighting within your office space.
1. Floor Lamp with Regular Brightness
There are varieties of floor lamps with specific purposes. Its purpose determines whether it would be lighted for a general office brightness or focused to a specific corner.
Floor lamps with regular brightness often give off up to 5000k and 800 lumens in brightness.
2. Bright Floor Lamp for Office
Bright floor lamps are used for various purposes in the office; these include reading, writing, or using a laptop.
There are specified types of floor lamps that can be used in offices.
Some of these lamps include the reading lamp and torchiere floor lamp.
The reading lamp has a lamp head that arches over the shoulder while seated in an office.
The light also emulates the sun’s rays and gives natural daylight to the room.
The light of a reading lamp is localized and focused on a location within an office.
On the other hand, a torchiere floor lamp produces light like a torch with most of its light pointed to the ceiling.
A torchiere lamp increases the brightness of a room when placed in a corner.
These two major floor lamp types are suitable for office use. The average brightness of office floor lamps is usually around 6500k from fluorescent bulbs.
Choose the Right Floor Lamps for Different Purposes
1. Office up-lighter – Provides bright ambient light for your office
A typical floor lamp found in this category is the torchiere floor lamp. It produces light pointing towards the ceiling like a torch and reflecting the light to the floor.
Office up-lighters (torchiere lamps) provide bright ambient light for the office and are perfect for offices without overhead lighting or insufficient natural lighting.
2. Column floor lamp – Matches your office interior design
This lamp type works to beautify the interior of your office anywhere it’s placed.
Though they provide light, they also come in colorful patterns and designs, such as colored glasses with patterns, trimmed fabrics or beautified pole stands to match office interior designs.
3. Arc floor lamp for office – Lighten up your large office
This type of floor lamp is suitable for modern offices.
It has a saucer-shaped look as it rises, arcs down, and up again.
It is mostly used over tables or couches to provide lighting in large offices.
The arc-shaped style of the lamp allows for efficient distribution of ambient or task lighting in the direction it is required.
4. Pendant floor lamp – Adds unique and stylish look to your office
This type of floor lamp is often designed for aesthetic benefits.
Some have crystals embedded on the base, shade, top, or pole of the lamp.
These lamp types are also great to use for ornamental lighting in themed offices.
5. Floor lamp with shelves – Brighten up the dark office corner
The office lamps with shelves offer extra versatility apart from lighting the office.
They often feature flat layered mid-section, oftentimes known as “shelf”, which can be used to organize other office stuff such as documents.
When attached to an office, oftentimes beside the chair, it primarily provides light to the office.
It can also be used to house personal items, such as photo frames or decorative pieces in personal offices.
What Temperature Bulb Should Office Floor Lamp Equip?
Cool white office floor lamps have more blue light. It looks brighter because it has a higher lumen. It is cooler and more attractive in modern offices, especially where more light is needed.
On the other hand, warm white office floor lamps supply more heat and are preferable in colder regions.
It works much better when in search of softer lights. In offices, cooler white bulb floor lamps are better than warm white bulb floor lamps.
Brightness above 5500k is too blue and below 3500k could make office work less productive.
1. Cool White
They provide more brightness to offices with lesser heat. They also look more attractive and cooler.
Cool white office floor lamps provide between 4000k – 5500k. They are most used in offices with warmer environmental temperatures.
Cool white light is great to enhance productivity in offices where creative work is done, such as in art studios, or fashion offices.
2. Warm White
They provide brightness between 3000k – 4000k. They are more appreciated in cooler environments as they provide more warmth than the cool white office floor lamps.
Warm white lamp equally helps to enhance productivity in offices, where there are many workers, with the office area prone to movement from time to time.
The warm light helps to keep everyone on track and highly motivated for work.
Top 4 Brands Famous for Office Floor Lamps
1. Addlon office floor lamp – Budget winner
When it comes to floor lamps, Addlon has the best combination of design and functionality for floor lamps around $50.
They are designed with such uniqueness that the cheapest ranges still provide a plethora of modern functions and features, such as led bulbs, Alexa compatibility, and other smart compatibilities, and still work great as a decorative or accent lamp in any office.
2. Miroco floor lamp – Great for computer work
Miroco floor lamps are your best pick for computer-related work, as they come in 5 levels of brightness that allow you to set the tone for your work as the day goes by.
It also features adjustable color temperature settings that you can control depending on the light intensity of your computer and the available lighting of your office.
Miroco floor lamps can be used to supplement insufficient natural lighting and to counteract the glare from a computer screen.
3. Brightech floor lamps – Provide powerful LED lamps
When it comes to office lighting the Brightech floor lamps have been applauded for superior performance.
These floor lamps have powerful led lamps that give off warm natural light that’s required for productive work within the office environment.
4. Trond floor lamps – Great with bright light
Trond floor lamps have been applauded for effective office ambient lighting, as Trond floor lamps give off up to 5500k in light intensity.
This is perfect to supplement natural lighting and other overhead lighting within the office area.
The lamp helps to fill up what’s left in natural office lighting, to give the office the required productive ambiance.
Get an Ideal Floor Lamp Based on Your Office Situation
1. For dark office – Consider multi heads floor lamps
The multi-head floor lamp is an important source of lighting to consider for a dark office, also known as a tree floor lamp, which allows you to control each head in your preferred direction.
This is particularly suitable if the office is poorly lit and work is done in various angles of the office at the same time.
You may position a multi-head floor lamp to light up these angles, hence allowing you to light up different areas of the office via a single lighting source.
Each has a separate control, hence you can keep some heads off when work isn’t going on in that angle.
2. For home office – Consider adjustable floor lamps
More often than not, the temperature and lighting conditions of the home office take on the general lighting configuration used throughout the house.
This is even more common when a part of the home is repurposed for office use.
It is important to have used a floor lamp with adjustable temperature for your home office, as it helps you condition the feel of the room throughout the day.
It helps to complement the natural lighting source available within the home and set the tone of the office for work.
Adjustable color temperature helps to enhance your productivity and gives you the flexibility of switching between various workflows.
For example, work that requires a high level of concentration may require a temperature intensity of up to 5000k, while simple administrative work may require between 3000k-5000k color intensity, etc.
A floor lamp with this feature helps you to control the temperature intensity that it gives off within your work hours.
3. For modern office – Pick up minimalist floor lamp
When it comes to floor lighting minimalist floor lamps work best for the modern office, as they subtly contribute functionality and style to the office atmosphere without being a distraction.
Bold floor lamp designs can quickly become distracting within the office space, especially when used as an accent or task lighting.
However, minimalist floor lamp designs help to keep things simple within the office area, while providing the required lighting.
4. For antique office – Check brass pharmacy floor lamps
What better lighting feature beats a brass pharmacy lamp in an antique office?
The look and feel of it feel as vintage as you need it to be, and it blends effortlessly into the existing design.
The brass-colored finish also gives off the feel of previous centuries, hence it can serve as a great accent piece or even for task lighting.
5. For small office – Buy thin floor lamps with bright light
When it comes to space management in a small office, it’s important that every element works together to save space.
That is why a thin floor lamp with a bright lamp is perfect for a small office space. Its bright lighting helps to make up for additional lumens required for work, to complement existing natural lighting.
It also contributes to the style of the office and can work well as a good source of task lighting, while taking up a small footprint in the office.
6. For counseling office – Consider sufficient light floor lamps
Lighting is an important aspect of your counseling office, as it can influence your client’s interaction with you in various ways.
When choosing an office floor lamp, the size of your office space can determine the kind of floor lamp you buy and where it is placed.
Good lighting helps to set the ambiance for your office and can influence how confident and relaxed your client feels.
A poorly-lighted counseling room can further contribute to a client’s depression, hence when lighting your office with a floor lamp, ensure the lamp supplies sufficient bright light.
The lamp should have adjustable brightness levels that you can control to set the mood of the room as the conversation progresses.
Another important tip to consider is going for a multi-colored floor lamp, that allows you to set your color of choice as your client’s needs demand.
While some will respond positively to warm-colored lighting, others with hypersensitivity may require cooler lighting during their session.
7. For office without overhead floor lamps – Consider tall uplighting lamps
When choosing a floor lamp for an office without overhead lighting, ensure to go for one with a high brightness intensity.
The brightness level of the lamp is what determines how much extra lighting it can provide to the office – in the absence of an overhead as light.
You should also look out for floor lamps that light up the ceiling. That way, the light directed at the ceiling is evenly distributed across the room.
Height is another important factor because, when a tall floor lamp is positioned at a corner of the room, its brightness can serve as the main lighting for the entire workspace.
Go for lamps with optional controls, especially remote or smart controls, so that you don’t have to go all the way across the room to switch on the main source of lighting for the office.
8. For law office calls – Purchase eye-protective floor lamps
Law offices are document-intensive work environments and long hours of concentration on text, without the right lighting, can be damaging.
Lawyers and other staff in a law office will be able to perform efficiently when provided with the necessary elements for their work environment.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates the safety of all employees and that includes eye protection.
As such, eye-protective lamps are essential for any law office.
The best types of floor lamps for eye protection are dimmable lights with wide ranges of brightness.
These types of lights allow the user to adjust the intensity of the light to fit what their eyes need.
Dimmable lights with wide angles and adjustable stands are the perfect eye-protection floor lamps.
The wide angles spread the brightness across a space, ensuring that the intensity of focus is limited and the user’s eyes can adjust naturally to the brightness.
Adjustable stands on floor lamps also achieve a similar purpose by reducing the intensity and helping the user get the best level of brightness for their eyes.
9. For doctors’ office – Consider a task floor lamp
For doctors, the lighting requirements are more peculiar due to the different specializations in the medical field.
The most important factor for a floor lamp used in a doctor’s office is steadiness and adjustability.
The floor base of the lamp must be sturdy so it doesn’t shift the light direction or focus while in use.
At the same time, it must have an adjustable arm that can be moved to direct the light on specific areas.
The standard medical lamp is usually adjustable to be focused on a task area and make the examination and/or treatment processes easier.
Brightness levels are another important factor because doctors may examine the patient to see how the affected areas appear under different shades of lighting for accurate diagnosis.
Medical floor lamps have different levels of brightness, ranging from a 25-watt bulb to a 60-watt bulb, although dimmable lights are the best options.
Lamp shades must also be considered when selecting a floor lamp for a medical office.
The appropriate lamps for doctors’ offices must have shades that prevent heat emission from the bulb and offer shadow-free reflection.
The lamp should provide lighting without interfering with the temperature of the room, the visualization, and the doctor’s mobility during the procedure.
10. For mens’ office
Selecting a floor lamp for mens’ office has more to do with the interior layout and decoration than the lighting effect of the lamp.
Typically, a ‘manly’ office has neutral or single-tone shades with rustic or sturdy layout themes.
Therefore, the lighting has to match the interior of the office. The most popular floor lamps in mens’ offices are tall, tripod-style vintage lamps.
With the traditional lamp shades, these types of floor lamps are functional with minimal aesthetics, but they fit right in with the decor of the room.
Due to the fact that most mens’ offices have minimalist designs with functional architecture, rather than aesthetics, it is important to keep the design style simplistic.
With a traditional-style floor lamp, there is a touch of rustic elegance that delivers functional aesthetic quality to the workspace.
Tall tripod floor lamps are also best placed at angles of the office, which makes them perfect because they steer clear of the open floor space – an essential design note for mens’ offices.
11. For girly offices
For a soft feminine office, getting the right floor lamp means matching the chic elegance theme of the workspace.
The perfect floor lamp for a girly office has a light and airy quality in its structure, blending with the decor of the space effortlessly.
Floor lamps with slim steel or white rods/stands are a common pick in girly offices.
The design of their stands accentuates the theme of the office space and highlights all the softer neutral or pastel notes in the decor.
Patterned shades, which create simple designs in the lighting reflection, are also common in girly offices because of their added aesthetic qualities.
Is Soft White or Daylight Good for Office Use?
Floor lamps come in different color temperatures ranging from 1800k (Candlelight) to 8000k – 12000k (Blue Sky), but for offices, the debate is between 4000k (Cool White) and 5000k color temperature (Daylight).
The right choice usually depends on the office decor theme and the professional field.
Generally though, the preferable choice is the 5000k Daylight temperature.
Cool White has a warm glow that is highly suitable for lobbies and reception areas to make visitors welcome.
However, for the workspace areas, daylight temperature is known to improve productivity. It provides efficient visibility and gives employees better workflow and enthusiasm.
Ultimately, the choice depends on the size and specialization of the office, but it should range between soft white and daylight temperatures.
Where Should Floor Lamps Be Placed in an Office?
Floor lamps are used for different purposes, and these purposes often determine their placement.
When used to provide overhead lighting or general ambiance, the floor lamps should be placed at specific angles or edges in the room.
For more detailed uses like reading and focused visibility, the floor lamps should be placed behind or beside the work area.
In offices like art studios or medical offices, where lighting is required at different angles from time to time, the floor lamps should be easily movable and adjustable for optimum function.
