NIRGUA Luces Exclusivas desk lamp LE42109

NIRGUA is a desk lamp on a jointed arm of pale wood, with a white hemispherical metal shade and a white round base. The arm is two wooden sections held by three joints — at the base, at the elbow and under the shade — so the lamp is aimed where the light is wanted rather than shuffled around the desktop.

How much desk it takes up

The manufacturer gives a diameter of 16 cm and a height of 59 cm. The 16 cm is the round base, which is exactly the footprint the lamp claims on the desk — everything else works above it. The base is also the widest part, so the lamp can be pushed into a corner of the desk.

The 59 cm applies with the arm extended; folded at the joints, the shade drops considerably closer to the desktop. The cable runs along the wooden arm through eyelets drilled in the timber, so it does not hang loose over the desk when the lamp is repositioned.

Which bulb to buy

The lamp takes one E27 bulb of up to 12 W. No bulb is supplied. At this socket a 12 W ceiling means an LED bulb in practice — traditional sources of that wattage are no longer made in E27.

For reading, which is what the manufacturer intends this lamp for, around 800 lm is useful — the output of the old 60 W incandescent — and a typical 8–12 W E27 LED reaches it. The colour is yours to choose: 2700–3000 K gives warm, yellowish light for the evening, 4000 K a neutral white closer to daylight and easier for working through paperwork.

Build

The arm and the piece joining it to the base are bare pale timber; shade and base are white-painted metal. The joints are closed by visible knurled screws that set how much resistance the arm offers — on this type of lamp, the part you retighten after a while.

It runs on 230 V and is intended for dry rooms. The shade is opaque and sends all the light downwards onto the surface beneath it — onto the desk, not around the room.