Desk Lamps Buying Guide

With more and more people creating home offices, the desk lamp is an important, functional item to purchase. Desk lamps are task lights, which means that their major purpose is to provide light for specfic tasks. For that reason, they tend to be utilitarian in design. But there is plenty of beauty in functional designs, and there are hundreds of beautiful desk lamps available to choose from.

Although desk lamps are designed to be used with desks, there is no reason to limit them to the office. A desk lamp makes a very useful, flexible reading light. Many desk lamps are designed to adjust and focus light. This makes them excellent choices for accent lighting, or even to create general lighting by focusing the light on walls or ceilings.

Every desk lamp will include some kind of a base, a supporting pole (usually called a "neck" or "arm," depending on the lamp) that allows you to adjust the light, a bulb socket, and a power cord. Desk lamp shades are almost always made from metal or glass. Their primary function is to focus the light onto a specific work area. Most desk lamps will use a single standard light bulb, although there are some fluorescent and halogen desk lamps available.

Because they are primarily task lights, desk lamps are categorized in two ways. The first is by task, or by the profession that uses the lamp most often.

Architect Desk Lamps Architects spend much of their time drawing blueprints for houses and buildings. They need lamps that can shine a bright light over a larger area than say, a writer or a business owner. Architect desk lamps have a large, round reflective shade with a light switch conveniently located on top. The arm is jointed at the middle to adjust easily and swings from the base. The base is either well-weighted to support the wide swing of the lamp, or made to clamp onto the architect's drawing board.

Bankers Desk Lamps A banker, on the other hand, needs a strong focused light to illuminate accounting ledgers. The bankers desk lamp has a rectangular shade, which creates a book-shaped light pool. These desk lamps have a strong nostalgic feel. The classic bankers desk lamp has a dark green glass shade, with a gold pull chain.

Pharmacy Desk Lamps Another classic type of desk lamp is the pharmacy lamp. These were originally used by pharmacists, who required strong, focused light as they sorted through small pills and tablets. A pharmacy lamp usually has an arced or gooseneck arm, with a small, rounded shade.

Students Desk Lamps Students need lamps that can shine a focused light on their books and papers as they study. They also need a light that doesn't fill the room, since they might need to study while their dorm mates are sleeping. And, of course, being students they need lamps that are inexpensive. Student desk lamps have a narrowly focused metal shade with an adjustable goose neck. Some student desk lamps have bases, and some of them are made to clamp to the edge of a desk or bookcase.

Piano Desk Lamps Piano desk lamps have the same general shape as bankers desk lamps. However, they tend to have more gracefully curved shades. These shades are usually made from metal rather than glass, as a piano desk lamp might need to be moved or adjusted more often.

The second way to categorize desk lamps is by the shape of the arm or neck.

Adjustable Desk Lamps Many people who use desk lamps need to adjust them as they work. The classic need is an artist or architect, who works with a large drawing board wanting to move the light as he or she focuses on one area or another. Many desk lamps take this into account by having a jointed arm, which allows you to move the light source closer to or farther away from the table.

Swing Arm Desk Lamps If you want to move the light source horizontally rather than vertically, you may want a swing arm desk lamp. These are double-jointed, allowing the light to move in circles.

Balance Arm Desk Lamps Balance arm desk lamps work much like the jointed arms on architects desk lamps, but they are a bit nicer-looking. As in the architects desk lamps, the function of the balance arm is to bring the light closer to or farther away from the work area.

Gooseneck Desk Lamps Gooseneck lamps have a curved "neck" that is designed to be twisted up, down, or side to side. The neck is even flexible enough to turn the lamp upside down, so that it shines upwards like a torchiere. This type of lamp is extremely useful and aesthetically pleasing.

Clamp Desk Lamps Clamp desk lamps are designed to clamp onto the edge of a work table, drawing board, or desk. This helps keep the work area clear by minimizing the space taken up by the lamp base.

Clip Desk Lamps Clip lamps are wonderfully useful. The clip makes it easy to attach the lamp to the edge of a desk, or the headboard of a bed, or any kind of shelf. These lights are usually very lightweight and small. They are a good way to bring in a little extra light when and where you need it most.

Organizer Desk Lamps Some people save desk space by making the desk lamp do double duty. Organizer desk lamps incorporate small pockets on the base for paper clips, stamps, pens, and other small office tools.

Clock Desk Lamps Some desk lamps include clocks in the base, which is a handy and useful feature. However, including a clock may be ultimately inconvenient, as you may need to take the whole lamp to the repair shop if the clock breaks down.

Data Port Desk Lamps Some manufacturers are now including data ports on desk lamps. With the advent of computers, desk space is more crowded than ever, and incorporating data ports in the desk lamp is one solution. The drawback is that data ports are still evolving and what is perfect now may be obsolete in a few years.

Magnifier Desk Lamps Some lamps include a large magnifying class. These are useful if you are working on very delicate tasks, or if you need the magnification for reading.

Tiffany Style Desk Lamps Although they aren't designed for a specific task and they have no distinctive shape, Tiffany-style desk lamps deserve their own category. These lamps are based on the designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany, who created unique stained-glass or favrile glass lamps at the beginning of the 20th century.

Energy-Saving Desk Lamps With the growing concern over energy costs, some desk lamps are being designed to take advantage of energy conservation technology. These include lamps that use fluorescent and halogen light bulbs.

There are plenty of inexpensive desk lamps available, with even a few adjustable lamps starting at under $25. If you don't mind spending between $50-$250, you'll find hundreds of different types and styles to choose from.

Energy-saving lamps, including those with fluorescent or halogen lighting systems tend to be a bit more expensive, starting at $30-$60. The most expensive lamps, though, are the most aesthetic and unique ones. Tiffany-style desk lamps can sell for more than $500.

Adesso
House of Troy
Kenroy
Kichler
Lite Source
Meyda Tiffany
Sonneman
Trend Lighting