Buying advice bedside lamp
Perfect light for reading and relaxing at night
A bedside lamp is more than just a light source - it gives your bedroom an atmospheric ambience and provides that little bit of extra comfort and style.
In the bedroom, the small additional light makes a big impact. It's not just there to stop you bumping your toes on the bedpost at night. It also conveys warmth and cosiness and creates a relaxed atmosphere, e.g. when scrolling on your smartphone in the evening, listening to music or reading a good book.
Even without a classic bedside table, there are numerous ways to integrate a bedside lamp in a stylish and functional way. Whether as a flexible wall fixture or as a cordless LED bedside lamp with rechargeable battery - modern designs offer a variety of options to create pleasant lighting in any bedroom. So you don't have to do without the atmospheric light, even if the bedside table is missing.
So there is no reason to do without this atmospheric, useful additional light!
The classic bedside lamp on the table
The most popular version of the bedside lamp is actually the table lamp. After all, bedside tables are not that rare.
Don't have a bedside table? Then go straight to the wall light version.
Do you have a bedside table? Then enjoy the variety offered by a trapezoidal, (semi)round or cylindrical lampshade made of fabric or glass and a base made of wood or metal.
Because this is what the classic model of bedside lamp looks like. Hundreds of designers have taken on this model, giving it ever new, creative forms and improving it. For example with additional features such as a USB port for mobile phones.
The classic bedside lamp type offers:
- Undirected, soft light with a cosy ambience
- a plug for easy insertion of the light
- usually a switch on the cable
Tip: bedside lamps with touch dimmer!
Everyone has looked for the light switch on the bedside lamp in the pitch dark - and not found it straight away. So at least once. Rather twice, three times or ... regularly! If that annoys you, you'll never give up your bedside lamp with integrated touch function again. Because all you have to do to switch on the light is stretch out your arm and tap the base of the light once. The light switches on immediately and even switches through the different brightness levels level by level.
The bedside lamp as a pure reading lamp
The bedside lamp type for bookworms and that includes novel readers as well as newspaper readers.
Both use the directional light of a reading lamp for their hobby. This luminaire is less about soft, cosy light and more about practical lighting (which can also be chic in terms of design!). This is why this type has a screen that focuses the light.
The reading lamp type among the bedside lamps:
- directional light for reading
- an adjustable arm with ideally several joints
- Hardly any light for the rest of the room to orientate yourself at night (the reading light can also dazzle your partner if you have to go out at night!)
Tip: Recommended light colour for bedside lamps
Many modern smartphones automatically reduce the amount of blue light in the evening. This is because high blue components in light can have an energising effect on some people. You should therefore look for a warm white, cosy light colour of 2,700 to 3,300 Kelvin for your bedside lamp. The slightly reddish light has a more calming effect than a white or even bluish light and is therefore particularly recommended for the evening hours.
Real design classics among bedside lamps
The table lamp is an extremely popular type of lamp for designers, although true bedside lamp classics are rarer. But who says you can't put a timelessly modern lamp from the Bauhaus era on your bedside table?
Once you have realised that you can basically put any table lamp on your bedside table, you have endless design choices.
You will find, for example:
- creative interpretations of Fontana Arte
- Stylised, unusual art objects from FLOS
- modern design classics from Oluce
- world-famous classics from Artemide (reading with a Tolomeo is as classy as it gets!)
Tip: bedside lamps with LED
Many manufacturers and designers are moving more and more towards using LED light sources. Bedside lights are not usually left on for as long as ceiling lights. However, if you forget to switch off the light at night, this does not affect the LEDs. The lights are maintenance-free, provide uniform light and save energy. So if you have ever shied away from permanently installed LEDs: if all goes well, the bulbs in an LED bedside lamp will never break. And if, after several decades, you do want to buy a new luminaire anyway, you may want to do so.
The bedside lamp ... on the wall!
Where is there room for a bedside lamp if not on the bedside table? The answer: **on the wall next to the bed.
In your own home, it is particularly practical to use space-saving bedside lamps. Models that can be flexibly attached to the wall or used wirelessly offer the advantage that the nightstand remains free for personal items such as a book, mobile phone or wristwatch. Bedside lamps in a set of 2** are particularly popular, providing symmetrical and functional lighting on both sides of the bed. This not only creates more space, but also a harmonious lighting atmosphere in the bedroom.
The wall light type among the bedside lamps ...
- provides directional light for reading
- has a flexibly adjustable light head
- provides hardly any light for the rest of the room for orientation at night
- requires a power connection on the wall (or two if both partners want to use it)
The unusual bedside pendant light
"Unusual" because this type of pendant light is quite rare. But as is so often the case with rare things, they make a enormous impression.
Why this type is so rare is quickly explained: it requires ceiling connections. And just like the bed, these also have to be positioned precisely. Move the bed later? Is not! Before using pendant lights, it is therefore important to plan the bedroom well for the long term. This explains why this type of luminaire is used more frequently in hotel rooms than in private bedrooms.
The pendant lamp type among the bedside lamps ...
- Provides directional or diffuse ambient light for reading or ambience, depending on the pendant light
- is an incredibly stylish interpretation of the lighting next to the bed
- requires a power connection on the ceiling (or two if both partners want to use it)
The jack-of-all-trades: the spectacular wall light combination
This type of luminaire is designed for people who want simply everything - at least in terms of lighting.
Whether you have a bedside table or not: the wall light with integrated, additional (!) Reading lighting is simply a jack of all trades! It combines the dimmed, cosy light of the classic type with a spot-like reading light and does not take up a single square millimetre of space on a bedside table.
This special type of bedside lamp ...
- provides perfect, focussed light for reading in bed
- emits beautiful, atmospheric light so that you can simply relax and have an orientation light at night
- makes both types of light separately switchable
- takes up no space on the bedside table
- looks cosy, modern and trendy
Last but not least: the space saver (or interim solution)
Not a chance! Either there is no bedside table at all or the space on it is used for something else.
But connecting a wall light or a pendant light? I can't, I don't want to, I'm not allowed to (because it's a student flat, for example) or maybe it's not possible.
Whether for space reasons or because a transitional solution needs to be found or both: clamp and socket lights are the solution.
These two lighting options for the bedroom are ...
- Absolutely space-saving
- Very quick and flexible to use
- Can be flexibly aligned thanks to the individually adjustable luminaire neck
Clamp light or socket light? This mainly depends on how far away and where the socket or holder is located that is suitable for this purpose. A socket light hanging somewhere on the skirting board is of little use for reading. A clamp light that is clamped to a shelf one metre away, just as little. A socket light at a height of around 60-70 cm and within easy reach of the arm or a clamp light at the same height and with a switch that is also within easy reach of the arm is ideal.
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:format(jpeg) "Inspiring designer LED table lamp Aurelia, magenta")
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