How bright should an LED floor lamp be?

The versatility of floor lamps means they’re well suited to most rooms and spaces. The brightness of your floor lamp will depend on how you use it. For example, if you’re using a floor lamp for task lighting, such as for reading or working, it should be brighter. Floor lamps used to add ambiance or illuminate dark corners should be dimmer.

The best kind of light for a dark room, such as those with few or no windows, is an LED — they’re not just energy efficient, but they can produce much brighter light than incandescent bulbs. When choosing a floor lamp, you’ll find that some come with lights already integrated into the lamp itself, and others come with empty sockets. To get the brightest light, make sure that your lamp has integrated LED lights or place your own LED bulbs into the sockets.

Color temperature is measured in degrees of Kelvin, with warmer light on the lower end of the scale and cooler light on the upper. If you need a bright floor lamp for a dark room, a higher Kelvin — bright white daylight, around 6000 Kelvin, for example — gives the appearance of a brighter room. Warm light (around 2000 Kelvin), on the other hand, casts a soft, orange-toned light for a cozy, comforting atmosphere.

Luckily, with Philips Hue, you don’t have to choose — you can create different moods and atmospheres by adjusting the brightness and temperature of your light in the Hue app.

Once you know where your floor lamp will be placed and what it will be used for, you’ll need to select your bulbs or the floor lamp with the right integrated LED. If you’re using your floor lamp for reading, it will need to be around 450 lumens.

For flexibility in brightness and color temperature, the Hue Signe floor lamp is an ideal choice. It offers 2000–6500 Kelvin and provides 2500 lumens — the equivalent of a 175-watt bulb. Its dimmability makes the Signe an ideal floor lamp for accent, task, or ambient lighting.