A good desk lamp puts light exactly where your hands and eyes are working, so the rest of the room can stay calm. It reduces glare from the screen, helps on dark winter afternoons and makes a home office feel like a proper place to work. Our first desk lamps are on their way.
Our first pieces are on their way. We are choosing them one by one from European workshops and makers. Tell me when they arrive.
Buying guide
Working by the light of a ceiling fitting and a laptop screen is tiring, and since many of us now work from home at least part of the week, it is worth getting right. The ceiling light sits behind you and casts your own shadow on the desk, while the screen is the brightest thing in the room. A desk lamp fixes both problems, and choosing one comes down to brightness, colour, adjustability and where it will stand.
The European workplace lighting standard, EN 12464-1, recommends around 500 lux on a desk used for reading, writing and computer work. In practice, a desk lamp giving 450 to 800 lumens, placed 40 to 50 cm above the work surface, gets you there. Detailed tasks such as drawing, sewing or model making benefit from 1,000 lumens or more. A dimmer lets you turn the light down for evening work or video calls.
Neutral white, around 4,000 K, feels clear and helps concentration during the day. Warm white, around 2,700 K, is kinder in the evening and better if the desk is in a bedroom. Many LED desk lamps let you change between the two at the touch of a button, and some adjust automatically through the day. Look also at the CRI, the colour rendering index. A CRI of 90 or above shows colours accurately, which matters for anyone who draws, paints or works with fabric.
The most useful desk lamps can be pointed. A balanced-arm or spring-arm design moves smoothly and stays where you put it. A gooseneck bends in any direction, and a tilting head lets you aim light at a document without hitting the screen. A fixed lamp with a shade looks lovely but gives less control, so it suits a bedroom desk or a hallway console better than a busy workspace.
Place the lamp on the side opposite your writing hand. A right-handed person should have light coming from the left, so the hand does not cast a shadow over the page. Keep the head below eye level and angled away from you, and avoid aiming it at your monitor, which causes reflections. If your desk is small, a clamp desk lamp fixes to the edge and leaves the surface clear.
A desk lamp spends most of the day switched off, so it should look good on its own. Metal lamps in black, white or brass suit most home offices, and a fabric shade softens a desk in a bedroom or living room. Think about scale too. A long arm on a narrow desk will hang over the edge, and a tiny lamp on a large table will not light enough of it. As a rough guide, the reach of the arm should cover the middle of your working area.
Two details are easy to miss. Flicker, which you may not consciously see, can cause eye strain over long days, so look for lamps described as flicker-free. Glare from a bare bulb at eye level is tiring too, so choose a shade or diffuser that hides the light source. Balancing the lamp with some general light in the room also helps, because your eyes work harder when they move between a bright desk and a dark room.
A USB port in the base is handy if your desk is short of sockets. A weighted base keeps a long arm stable. Integrated LEDs last many years but cannot be replaced, while lamps with a standard E27 or E14 holder let you choose the bulb. For children doing homework, a sturdy desk lamp with a simple switch and a cool LED is the safest choice.
At a glance
| Task | Suggested output | Colour temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | 450 to 800 lumens | 3,000 to 4,000 K |
| Computer work | 400 to 600 lumens | 3,500 to 4,000 K |
| Drawing and fine detail | 800 to 1,200 lumens | 4,000 to 5,000 K |
| Evening use | 250 to 450 lumens | 2,700 K |
Around 450 to 800 lumens for reading, writing and computer work, which gives roughly the 500 lux on the desk recommended by EN 12464-1. Go higher for fine detail.
Yes, if it is flicker-free, hides the bulb behind a shade or diffuser and has a good colour rendering index of 90 or above. Pair it with some background light in the room.
Opposite your writing hand. Right-handed people should have the lamp on the left, left-handed people on the right, so the hand does not shade the page.
Neutral white, around 4,000 K, during the day. Switch to warm white, around 2,700 K, in the evening if your lamp allows it.