The 10 best living room lights of 2026 – ten makers compared, with the specs that decide

The living room is the only room in the house that has to be four different rooms in a single evening: somewhere to talk, somewhere to read, somewhere to watch a film and somewhere to receive guests. One lamp on the ceiling cannot do all of that, and that is exactly why so many living rooms are badly lit. So we took ten lamps from ten manufacturers, each for a different job: a pendant over the seating area, a chandelier, a flush ceiling light, a reading floor lamp, a table lamp, a wall light, an LED strip, a panel, a recessed downlight and a track system. For each one we give the things that really decide how the room looks after dark: light output, colour temperature, CRI, how it dims and how long the warranty runs. Every number comes from the product record, not from a brochure. In a hurry? The table is enough. Want to know why your one lamp will never be enough — keep reading.

Table of contents

1. How we picked these ten
2. The specs that actually decide
3. Comparison table
4. 1. Lunares Leather – the pendant over the seating area
5. 2. Elstead Deryn – the statement chandelier
6. 3. TK-Lighting Velis – the flush ceiling light as general lighting
7. 4. Lucide CHAMPION-LED – the reading floor lamp
8. 5. Endon Longshore – the table lamp and mood light
9. 6. Ideal Lux Delta – the wall light by the sofa and behind the TV
10. 7. KLUŚ – LED strip and profile
11. 8. V-TAC – the LED panel and even light
12. 9. Nordlux ELKTON – recessed downlights
13. 10. Maytoni POINTS – track lighting, or light you can move
14. Putting it together: light in layers
15. Frequently asked questions
16. Summary

How we picked these ten

Three rules we applied before anything went on the list.

One manufacturer per place. Ten variants of the same lamp is not a ranking, it is a product page. So every place belongs to a different manufacturer and answers a different question: what hangs over the coffee table, what lights the whole room, what you read by, what sets the mood, what lights the shelving unit, and what you can move after the sofa moves. Where several candidates were fighting for one place, we took the one that publishes more data about its lamp.

In stock with us, in every shop. Every lamp on this list is in stock and appears in all eight of our storefronts. That condition alone knocked several obvious candidates off the list. Recommending a lamp you cannot buy is not advice.

Numbers instead of adjectives. Everything below comes from the product records we ship with the lamp: luminous flux, colour temperature, CRI, how it dims, dimensions, the lampholder and the warranty period. We give the figures for the specific variant, because within one family they often differ. Where the manufacturer does not state something, we say so. We do not guess.

The specs that actually decide

In the garden, everything hinges on the IP rating. In a living room, IP decides nothing — the lamps on this list that state a rating at all are IP20, which is all a dry room needs. The one exception is the Velis ceiling light at IP54, and for the Deryn chandelier the manufacturer does not state a rating at all. Other things matter instead.

Luminous flux, and the fact that layers add up. No single number lights a living room. The 60 W Velis ceiling light gives 3,900 lumens, and that is the whole general layer, the one for cleaning up and letting guests in. The reading lamp adds 320 lumens, but exactly where you need them, and that is the one you actually sit under. The wall light above the sofa contributes 1,100 lumens from the source, the strip under a shelf 1,200 lumens per metre, the ceiling panel 2,500. Do not add these up to hit some target figure — you almost never switch those layers on at the same time. Add them up the other way round: check that every activity in the room has its own light. A living room with a single 3,900 lm fitting is lit and uncomfortable. The same room with 320 lm at the armchair and 1,200 lm in a wall light is darker and better.

Colour temperature. The domestic default is warm white, 2,700–3,000 K, and most of the lamps here sit exactly there. It is the light that makes wood look like wood rather than grey, and makes an evening look like an evening. Neutral white at 4,000 K and above only works in a living room locally: over a worktop where you are actually doing something, or in a task fitting. Above the sofa it looks like a waiting room. Watch out for fittings with a colour switch — the Velis lets you choose 3,000, 4,000 or 5,500 K, and that is a good feature, provided you set it to 3,000 K once and forget about it.

CRI, the colour rendering index. It is the one spec on this list that you cannot see as a number on the box but can see in the room. CRI tells you how faithfully the light shows colour. At CRI 80 oak turns muddy and dark fabric loses its depth. Above CRI 90 the same wood and the same fabric look the way they look in daylight. The difference is biggest where you look closely and for a long time: on the sofa, at the coffee table, on a wall of pictures. That is why the Delta wall light at above 90 and the KLUŚ strip at 90+ are on this list, and why the panel at CRI 80+ is on it for an entirely different reason — which we explain at number eight. Not every manufacturer publishes CRI. We quote it only where the record states it.

Dimming, the single most common reason for a return. This is not one feature but four different ones, and this is where buyers get it wrong most often. First: a lamp with an E27 or E14 lampholder dims through the bulb — you need a dimmable bulb and a dimmer in the wall, and the lamp itself has nothing to do with it. That is how numbers one and two work. Number five has the same E27 lampholder, but its record says “no” to dimming in as many words — and that is how we report it, because the record outranks whatever the lampholder implies. Second: a lamp with a dimmer on the body, like the Lucide CHAMPION-LED, where the control sits on the fitting and you need nothing in the wall. Third: an integrated LED fitting dimmed by an external dimmer — that is how one version of the very same Lucide lamp is described, which shows you have to check this variant by variant even inside a single family. And fourth: an LED strip on a 24 V driver, where the dimmer has to match the driver, not the mains. If there is no dimming field in the record, assume the lamp does not dim. The V-TAC panel on this list has no such field at all, and the Delta wall light has one that says “no” outright.

Replaceable bulb versus integrated LED. The same trade-off as with garden lamps, but the stake is different. Outdoors a dead module costs money. In a living room it costs a ladder. An E27 or E14 lampholder means you choose the colour and the output yourself, you swap the bulb in thirty seconds, and the lamp still works ten years later. An integrated LED gives a slimmer body, a known output and full control of the optics — there is no other way to build a wall light three and a half centimetres deep or a ceiling light five point eight centimetres tall. But when the diode ages, the whole fitting is finished. The conclusion is simple: where the point is atmosphere and a warm glow, the replaceable bulb wins. Where the point is a specific amount of light in a specific spot, the module wins.

Warranty, the one number comparable across all ten. On this list it ranges from two to seven years, and two manufacturers state none at all in the records of these particular variants. Read the period as a measure of how much risk the manufacturer takes on, not as a promise that the lamp will last that long. It is a commercial undertaking with its own conditions, separate from the statutory consumer rights that differ from country to country. And make sure you compare variant with variant: two Lucide lamps with identical specs carry different warranty periods on this list, because the series name differs.

Comparison table

#	Lamp	Job in the living room	Light	Source and dimming	Size	Warranty
1	Lunares Leather cylinder	soft light over the seating area	depends on the bulb	E27 up to 60 W, dims via the bulb	shade ⌀ 40/50/60 cm, height 102–112 cm	2 years
2	Elstead Deryn 3	chandelier over the middle of the room	depends on the bulbs	3 × E27 up to 60 W, dims via the bulbs	⌀ 55.8 cm, height 47 cm	2 years
3	TK-Lighting Velis Black 60 W	general light for the whole room	3,900 lm, 3000/4000/5500 K, CRI >90	integrated LED, dimmable	⌀ 60 cm, height 5.8 cm	not stated by the maker
4	Lucide CHAMPION-LED 19792/24/12	reading in an armchair	1,600 lm upwards + 320 lm in the arm, 3000 K, CRI 80	integrated LED, dimmer on the lamp	height 180 cm, ⌀ 25.4 cm	5 years
5	Endon Longshore 101693	mood light on a sideboard or by the sofa	record states 806 lm for the source	E27 up to 10 W, no dimming	⌀ 25 cm, height 41 cm	2 years
6	Ideal Lux Delta 345154	wall light above the sofa and behind the TV	1,100 lm from the source, 770 lm out of the fitting, 3000 K, CRI >90	integrated LED, no dimming	30 cm long	5 years
7	KLUŚ K-30-1275-24V	lighting for furniture and coves	1,200 lm/m, 3000 K, CRI 90+	24 V strip, dimmable	8 mm wide, sold by the metre	7 years
8	V-TAC VT-60024RD-S	the cheapest even light	2,500 lm, 3000 K, CRI 80+	integrated LED, dimming not stated	⌀ 288.6 mm, 31.2 mm deep	5 years
9	Nordlux ELKTON ⌀ 14.5 cm	recessed downlight in the ceiling	800 lm, 2700 K	integrated LED, dimmable	⌀ 14.5 cm, height 3.9 cm	not stated by the maker
10	Maytoni POINTS TR082-1-12W3K-M-B	light you can move	1,200 lm, 3000 K, CRI 90, 36° beam	integrated LED, no dimming	22.2 cm long, 48 V magnetic track	5 years

The table answers “which one”, but not “how many at once” – that comes at the end, in the section on light in layers.

1. Lunares Leather – the pendant over the seating area

This is our own brand, but it opens the list for a different reason: in a living room a lamp rarely needs to shine hard. It needs to shine softly and low, over the place where people sit. A fabric shade does that better than glass or metal.

The cylinder version, the one to start with, has a fabric shade 40, 50 or 60 cm across, an E27 lampholder up to 60 W and a two-year warranty, with a total height of 102, 107 or 112 cm depending on the shade size you choose. There is one caveat the record states plainly: the lamp is only made once you order it, in the fabric and size you choose, so it falls outside the fourteen-day right of withdrawal. The warranty and your rights if something turns out faulty are unaffected.

Hang it over the coffee table or over the corner of the sofa, not in the middle of the room. With the bottom edge of the shade around 150–160 cm above the floor, the light stays in the seating zone and nobody looks into the bulb when they stand up. And that is the whole argument for a replaceable bulb here: you decide whether there is a warm filament bulb or an ordinary 2700 K LED inside, and you add dimming yourself by fitting a dimmable source.

What else is in the range: the same cylinder in grey upholstery and in black with copper, for rooms where beige and gold would be one note too many. The round Leather chandelier on the same shade, the asymmetric Elegance to hang over the edge of a sofa, and the triple BUCKET for a living room open to the dining area. All take an E27 bulb and all are made to order.

2. Elstead Deryn – the statement chandelier

The chandelier is the one lamp in a living room whose job is not to light it. It is there to be the thing in the middle of the room that the eye settles on. Elstead Lighting has been building that shape for a long time and — more importantly — publishes all the figures you need before you drill into the ceiling.

The Deryn in natural brass is three E27 lampholders up to 60 W, 55.8 cm across, 47 cm tall, with a two-year warranty. Bulbs are not included, and it dims once you fit dimmable ones. The most important number, though, is a different one: the full height adjustment runs from 41.6 to 247.1 cm, so the same chandelier hangs under a standard 250 cm ceiling and in a room with a mezzanine.

One rule matters when hanging it: keep the bottom edge at least 210 cm above the floor anywhere people walk. Over a coffee table you can go lower, because nobody passes underneath. Three sources of 60 W each is a lot of power, so fit warm bulbs of moderate output — a chandelier is meant to glitter, and lighting the room is number three’s job.

What else is in the range: the same Deryn in an aged antique grey finish, with identical dimensions and the same adjustment range. The Bolla in brushed nickel, also on three E27s. The Finsbury Park, where crystal replaces glass and smaller E14 lampholders break the light into more small points. The black Artisan at ⌀ 36 cm, for a room where a big chandelier would be too much. And the Nori in steel and wood. All of them dim through the bulbs.

3. TK-Lighting Velis – the flush ceiling light as general lighting

This is the most thankless place on the list and the most necessary. A flush ceiling light is a lamp nobody looks at, switched on when you need to find something or let guests in. It has to light the room evenly and then disappear.

The Velis in black, 60 W version, gives 3,900 lumens at 60 cm across and only 5.8 cm deep. You switch the colour between 3,000, 4,000 and 5,500 K, the fitting is dimmable, and CRI is above 90 — rare at this price and the main reason the Velis is here. The IP54 rating is more than a living room needs but exactly what the same fitting needs in a bathroom or a kitchen. The source is integrated and not replaceable, and the record for this variant carries no warranty field — which is why the table says “not stated by the maker”.

One detail neatly shows why data has to be read per variant: the same 60 W fitting in white is listed at 4,000 lumens and in black at 3,900. The finish makes the difference, not the wattage.

What else is in the range: the same Velis in four sizes, from 30 cm at 1,100 lumens to 60 cm at 3,900, all with the same colour switch, the same dimming and CRI above 90. There is also a white 60 W version at 4,000 lumens. And if you want a ceiling light in wood, the same catalogue has the Viga Wood LED: brushed pine, 2,807 lumens in a fixed 3,000 K, and the only one of the six whose record states a five-year warranty.

4. Lucide CHAMPION-LED – the reading floor lamp

If you are only going to buy one lamp from this list, buy this one. Nothing changes a living room as much, because nothing else puts light exactly where you sit without lighting the whole room.

The CHAMPION-LED does two jobs, and the point is that the two are separate. The main module points up: 20 W and 1,600 lumens bounced off the ceiling, soft indirect light with no shadow. A separate reading arm gives 4 W and 320 lumens aimed down, onto the book. That is 24 W together, 3000 K, CRI 80 and 180 cm tall. The dimmer is on the lamp itself, so you need nothing in the wall, and the warranty is five years — one of the two longest in this ten.

Stand it behind an armchair or beside the corner of the sofa, on the side of the arm you do not hold the book with. Light aimed at the ceiling bounces back and fills the corner of the room, while the reading arm lights your lap and dazzles nobody sitting opposite — the one arrangement in which someone can watch a film and someone else can read in the same room without an argument. One limitation: at CRI 80 the colours of books and fabrics will not be as alive as under the CRI 90-plus lamps here.

What else is in the range: the same lamp in black, with identical 1,600 lumens. The 19792/24/03 version, whose record describes dimming differently — by an external dimmer, not a control on the lamp; the series name will not tell you. The ZENITH has the same 24 W and 1,600 lumens but a two-year warranty instead of five. And two PHILON versions, slimmer and weaker, with a dimmer on the product.

5. Endon Longshore – the table lamp and mood light

The table lamp is the most underrated piece of furniture in a living room. It does not light the room and it is not supposed to. It stands on a sideboard or a side table and gives your eyes somewhere to rest once the ceiling light is off.

The Longshore has a black steel base and a seagrass shade, 25 cm across, 41 cm tall, with a two-year warranty. The record lists an E27 lampholder, up to 10 W and 806 lumens, but no bulb is included, so the real output depends on what you screw in; the manufacturer provides no dimming. The woven seagrass does exactly what you want from a lamp like this: it lets some light through sideways, in a warmer shade, and throws texture onto the wall instead of a blob.

Position it so the shade sits roughly at the eye level of a seated person, which means 100–120 cm above the floor including the furniture. Higher and it shines into faces, lower and it lights only the top of the cabinet. Two of them at either end of the sofa give you exactly as much light as an evening needs to hold a conversation and stay awake — the cheapest way to stop a living room looking like a conference room after dark.

What else is in the range: the Zaire in steel, wood and fabric and the Mathias on a wooden base, both lower, for narrower surfaces. The ceramic Artichoke, really a small lamp for a bookshelf. The Saroma on a smaller E14 lampholder. And the Linterna, the only one of the six with an integrated LED and so the only one you can dim without screwing in a dimmable bulb.

6. Ideal Lux Delta – the wall light by the sofa and behind the TV

In most living rooms the wall behind the television is the only large surface with nothing on it and nothing lighting it. That is a mistake: watching a bright screen in a dark room tires the eyes more than anything else, and a modest amount of light behind or above the screen fixes it.

The Delta in white, 30 cm long, is an integrated 10 W LED at 3000 K. Here the record gives two figures instead of one, which is rare and very honest: the source puts out 1,100 lumens, and 770 lumens leave the fitting. The difference is the light that stays inside the housing, and only the second figure tells you how much actually reaches the wall. CRI is above 90, the aluminium body measures 3.5 by 9 cm in section, and the warranty is five years. The record allows no dimming — it says “no” in as many words.

Mount it so the light runs along the wall, up and down, rather than straight into the room. Above a sofa it works at roughly 180–200 cm; on a TV wall, above or beside the screen, as long as it stays out of the seated line of sight. A wall light three and a half centimetres deep gets in nobody’s way along a wall you walk past.

What else is in the range: the same 30 cm Delta in black, with the difference that this variant’s record carries no luminous flux, no CRI and no warranty period — the figures from the white version do not carry over to it. Then three longer bodies, 61, 83 and 110 cm, all with the same section, so two different lengths can sit on the same wall. The manufacturer gives no luminous flux for any of them.

7. KLUŚ – LED strip and profile

Number seven is the only light on this list you never see — you only see what it does. A strip hidden in a profile under a shelf or in a coved ceiling does something no lamp can: it raises the brightness of the room without showing a source.

The K-30-1275-24V strip gives 1,200 lumens per metre at 14.4 W per metre, in a warm 3000 K with CRI 90+. It has 120 diodes per metre, is 8 mm wide, has a rated life of 50,000 hours and dims. It is sold by the metre and the warranty is seven years, the longest in the whole line-up. The density of 120 diodes per metre matters practically rather than commercially: at that spacing, behind an opal cover in a profile, you see a continuous line of light rather than individual dots.

Two things you have to buy alongside the strip and easily forget. The first is a 24 V driver with headroom — five metres of this strip is 72 W, so a 60 W driver will not do. The second is an aluminium profile, and it is not decoration: aluminium takes heat away from the diodes, and junction temperature is what decides whether the strip reaches its rated 50,000 hours. Match the dimmer to the driver, not to the mains.

What else is in the range: the same strip in neutral 4000 K at 1,440 lumens per metre — for a kitchen and a worktop, not for a living room. The denser K-CR30 with 140 diodes per metre. And the side-emitting K-SE-35, for places where the light has to leave a slot sideways rather than forwards. Plus two aluminium profiles: the straight KOZEL-10 and the round JAZ-DUO.

8. V-TAC – the LED panel and even light

Number eight is the most honest place on the list: it is the cheapest way to make a room evenly bright. A surface-mounted panel has no decorative ambitions, so it is judged purely on numbers.

The 24 W version with a Samsung chip gives 2,500 lumens in a warm 3000 K, at 288.6 mm across and 31.2 mm deep. That is 105 lumens per watt, more than most of the decorative fittings on this list manage. CRI is 80+, energy class F, and the warranty is five years. No dimming is declared, so assume there is none.

It is worth being blunt about where a panel like this belongs and where it does not. It works in the entrance area, in the adjoining hallway and anywhere the point is visibility rather than atmosphere. Above a sofa it will look like an office, and no number fixes that — CRI 80+ is enough where you simply need to see, not where you look at wood and fabric for two hours in the evening. It is on this list for output at the price, not for looks.

What else is in the range: the same panel in a square 285 × 285 mm version, with the same 24 W and 2,500 lumens. Two 18 W versions at 1,850 lumens and two 12 W versions at 1,200, each round and square. Colour, CRI 80+ and the five-year warranty are the same throughout, so the choice comes down to shape and to how much light a given spot needs.

9. Nordlux ELKTON – recessed downlights

A recessed downlight solves a problem none of the other lamps here touches: what to do when a suspended ceiling has no room for anything that sticks out. It disappears into the plane of the ceiling and leaves nothing behind but the light.

The larger ELKTON is an integrated LED giving 800 lumens in a warm 2700 K, 14.5 cm across with a 3.9 cm body. It is dimmable and protection class II — double insulated, so no earth needed. The manufacturer states neither a warranty period nor a CRI figure in the record, and that is a real limitation of this entry, which we say outright.

Layout matters more here than the fitting itself. Downlights spread evenly across a ceiling turn a living room into a supermarket. Set along one wall, roughly 60–80 cm away and spaced about the same, they wash the wall with light and lift the brightness of the whole room without shining into anyone’s eyes. Dimming is a condition here, not an extra: downlights at full output are always one notch too bright. And one thing the record does not tell you — check the cut-out diameter before you cut into the ceiling.

What else is in the range: exactly the same ELKTON name in a smaller size, ⌀ 8.2 cm and 350 lumens — proof that two products with the same name can differ in output by more than a factor of two. The CLYDE and the STAKE in the same size class. The LEONIS, rated IP65 and with no dimming — for a bathroom, not a living room. And the DonSmart, with adjustable colour from 2200 to 6500 K, the only one not fixed at 2700 K.

10. Maytoni POINTS – track lighting, or light you can move

The last place is the only one that forgives mistakes. Every other lamp has to go where the ceiling box is. Track lighting reverses that: you put up the track once, then slide and add fittings whenever the furniture moves or a picture goes up.

The POINTS in the TR082-1-12W3K-M-B version is a 12 W module giving 1,200 lumens at 3000 K, with CRI 90 and a 36° beam. It is 22.2 cm long and runs at 48 V on the Radity magnetic system — safe low voltage, so you move the fitting by hand with no tools. The warranty is five years. The 36° beam is the key figure here: that angle lights a picture, a shelving unit or a section of wall, not the whole room.

One warning, without which this whole entry is a trap: this is not one universal system. The six fittings below span four different ones — Radity and Exility at 48 V, the two-circuit S35 also at 48 V, and the classic single-circuit Unity at 230 V — and a fitting from one will not go into the track of another. Choose the system first, when you buy the track and the driver, and only then pick fittings for it; doing it the other way round ends in a return.

What else is in the range: the POINTS ROT with a rotating head and a narrow 24° beam, on the two-circuit S35 system — for aiming at one specific point. The BASIS with a 120° beam, so for even fill rather than accent. The BASIS GRID with an anti-glare louvre that lets only 190 lumens through — little light, but a completely invisible source. The miniature POINTS S on the Exility system, for shelves and display cabinets. And the ZON, the only one on classic 230 V in the Unity system.

Putting it together: light in layers

A living room that looks good in the evening almost never has one kind of light. It needs three layers, and you switch them separately:

• General — a flush ceiling light, a panel or a run of downlights. This layer is on when you are looking for your keys, tidying up, or letting guests in. It should give plenty of light and go off with one movement. If it stays on all evening, something is wrong with the other two.
• Task — a floor lamp by the armchair, a wall light above the sofa, a table lamp on the sideboard. This is the layer you actually spend the evening under. It should be low, warm and aimed at what you are doing: 320 lumens on a book does more here than 3,900 lumens on the ceiling.
• Mood and accent — a strip under a shelf, a track fitting aimed at a picture, a pendant over the coffee table. This layer lights nothing, and that is the point. It gives the room depth by showing that there is something behind the sofa.

A plan that works in an average living room: one ceiling light or chandelier in the middle, one floor lamp by the reading armchair, two table lamps or two wall lights by the sofa, a metre or two of strip in the shelving unit and — if you have a wall of pictures or a bookcase — three fittings on a short track. Split all that across at least three switches, because layers only make sense if you can switch them independently. Keep the colour at 2,700–3,000 K everywhere except the work zone — one 4,000 K lamp in a room full of warm light stands out immediately.

And two habits worth more than any purchase: light from several low points instead of one high one, and use less light than feels right in the shop. A living room lit like an office looks like an office. The same room at a third of that brightness, warm, with a lamp by the armchair and a lit shelf, looks like somewhere you want to stay.

Frequently asked questions

How many lumens does a living room need? There is no single right figure, because there is no single moment when you use a living room. The general layer is usually somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 lumens — the 60 W Velis has 3,900, the 24 W V-TAC panel 2,500. But in the evening you hardly ever need it. What counts then is what shines low: 320 lumens in the arm of a reading lamp, 770 lumens leaving a wall light, 1,200 lumens per metre of strip hidden under a shelf. Instead of asking “how many lumens per square metre”, count the activities: reading, watching, talking, cleaning. Each of them should have its own light.

What colour temperature for a living room? 2,700–3,000 K, warm white, for the whole room. At that colour, wood, leather and fabric look the way they looked in the shop. Save neutral 4,000 K for a desk or a worktop area. Cool white at 5,000 K and above has no place in a living room — if your fitting has a colour switch, set it to 3,000 K and forget it exists.

Does CRI really matter? In a living room it matters more than anywhere else, because it is the only room where you look at the same materials for hours. The difference between CRI 80 and CRI above 90 shows most on wood, on dark fabric and on skin tones. Where the point is only visibility — a hallway, a wardrobe, a corridor — CRI 80 is perfectly adequate. Where you sit, it is worth paying for.

What cannot be dimmed? Anything that does not declare it in the record. A lamp with an E27 or E14 holder dims only if you fit a dimmable bulb and have a dimmer in the wall — the holder itself changes nothing. An integrated LED fitting dims only if the manufacturer designed it that way, and the method varies even inside one family: one version of the Lucide CHAMPION-LED has a control on the body, another needs an external dimmer. A 24 V LED strip needs a dimmer matched to its driver. And if there is no dimming field in the record at all — as with the V-TAC panel — treat that as a “no”.

Replaceable bulb or integrated LED? For decorative lamps — pendant, chandelier, table lamp — a replaceable bulb, because you control the colour and the dimming, and the lamp outlives several generations of sources. For anything meant to deliver a specific amount of light in a specific place — reading lamp, wall light, strip, downlight, track fitting — an integrated module, because only then can the manufacturer guarantee the output, the colour and the beam. Just remember that replacing a worn module in a ceiling fitting means replacing the whole fitting.

How many lamps should a living room have? Usually more than it does. The sensible minimum is three sources at three different heights: something at the ceiling, something at eye level and something low. Four to six light points in a twenty-square-metre living room is not excessive, as long as they are split across separate switches. One lamp in the middle of the ceiling is too little in any living room, whatever its lumen figure.

Which lamp first, if all I have is one ceiling light? A reading floor lamp, or a pair of table lamps by the sofa. Those are what change how you use the room in the evening, and they need no electrician and no drilling. Wall lights, strips and downlights need cabling and are best planned with a refurbishment. Buy the chandelier and the ceiling light last — they are the most eye-catching things in the shop and the least significant in daily use.

Summary

Ten lamps, ten manufacturers and four decisions. Do not look for one lamp that lights the whole living room — split the light into three layers and onto separate switches. Keep the colour at 2,700–3,000 K everywhere you sit, and leave 4,000 K to the work zone. Check CRI on the lamps you look at from close up, because that is where the difference between 80 and 90 is visible to the naked eye. Check the dimming method variant by variant, because it differs even within one series, and a missing field in the record means “no”. And compare warranties only for the variant you are putting in the basket — on this list they range from two to seven years.

You will find the full range in Indoor Lights, lamps for the coffee table and the sofa in Hanging Lamps, general lighting in Flush Ceiling Lights, mood lamps in Table lamps, and reading lamps in Floor Lamps.