Our choice of ornaments has come under fierce scrutiny ever since Instagram, TikTok and lockdown Zoom meetings put our knick-knacks and trinkets on public show. Houseplants, candles, vases and books have all had their turn as the accessory of choice. But for 2024 the interiors must-have, artfully spaced on a living-room shelf, is the side light or table lamp.
And if it’s a one-off, all the better. Secondhand homeware platform Narchie reports a boom in lamp sales “Lighting is one of our most popular categories on the app, with sales increasing 47% compared with last year,” says Harriet Pringle, Narchie’s chief executive. “Recently, table lamps have consistently been the most searched-for items, followed by floor lamps, lampshades and wall lights.”
The rising demand has led two major interiors retailers to expand their lighting departments this spring. “We have spent the past 18 months developing our largest spring collection to date – tripling the amount of lighting we have on offer,” says Camilla Rowe, head of home accessories buying for John Lewis. “We’ve done this because we know that it is a simple way to update the look of your home. Adding ambient lighting in the right areas brings depth and creates a homely feel.”
Heal’s, the furniture store that has stood on London’s Tottenham Court Road since 1818, has also focused on lighting this season. “Table, wall and side lamps have experienced huge growth in recent years,” says Claire Anstey, Heal’s lighting buyer. “Pendants are still our biggest category, but table and wall lights provide a softer, more inviting glow, while doubling as a decorative accessory.”
The shift away from lighting a room by one central light or a grid of recessed LED spotlights to softer illumination has been under way for some time. But the rise of cordless lamps – available from high-end and high street brands – has changed the way lamps can be designed and also how they can be used in a room.
“Our cordless, portable lighting ranges have been hugely successful, and there are no signs that their popularity is slowing down,” says Anstey. “Low voltage, wire-free designs are great for use in children’s rooms, and USB cables mean they are easy to recharge and invaluable for dark corners without plug sockets. They’re brilliant for evening drinks in the garden – sometimes I’ll use mine when enjoying a bath.”
Colourful mushroom-shaped cordless lamps are particularly popular and are available at a range of prices. At the higher end, Danish designer Verner Panton’s Panthella lamp, made for the Louis Poulsen brand, was first sold in 1971 and relaunched in mini and portable versions in 2016. It is now available in a choice of 10 colours. Rowe says John Lewis’s version of a cordless mushroom lamp, £65, has also been a sell-out, as 1970s furnishings experience a new surge of popularity.
These simple lamps are also great for achieving the “unexpected red” trend currently big in fashion and interiors. This style trick – adding one red item to a room otherwise decorated in a different colour palette to add focus – is trending on TikTok.
Colour and light are not the only way these lamps add decoration to a room, however. Helen White is co-founder of British independent lighting company Houseof, and she points to the rise of sculptural lights as an important new trend. She says: “Abstract forms are big for 2024, especially twisted sculptural and organic shapes.”
One of the UK’s most influential gallerists is also fascinated by the artistic possibilities of lamps. Shine On at Sadie Coles HQ in London showcases lights created by artists including Sarah Lucas and Jim Lambie. Though Lucas’s bucket-and-coat-hanger pendant and Cary Kwok’s golden phallus wall light may not find great commercial success, the exhibition has been designed to look like a lighting showroom.
“Lights have an essential function that, arguably, art does not,” says Coles. “But they appeal to artists perhaps because light is an accentuation, a gesture, an extra trick in the toolbox. Like chairs and tables, they can be figurative, stand-ins for the body. They can veer from Baroque decoration to puritanical minimalism.”
The creative possibilities of lamps appear to be a big selling point. While many brands – such as Louis Poulsen – offer lamps in a vast array of colours, other brands allow greater customisation. The British lighting brand Pooky celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Its main selling point is that it offers a vast range of shades and bases in many colours, styles and patterns so customers can create their own unique light. There are currently more than 100,000 possible combinations. Pooky is so successful, it launched in the US last month.
Another part of the appeal of lamps, for a generation of renters, is that they are an item of furniture that is easy to install and to pack away.
“The good thing about lamps is that you can take them with you,” says White. “They are great for people who want to add atmosphere without drilling or getting an electrician in. New lighting will dramatically change the feeling of a room and customers often wonder how they lived without them.”
As Coles says, lights can be mood enhancers and ripostes to architecture. “They can be a challenge to the rules of both conventional design and good taste – or they can just be lights.”
