Unusual Bedside Lamp: Beyond the Catalogue
Alborra
Looking for an unusual bedside lamp is the best way to end up with an object that amuses you for six months and clutters the bedside for the next ten years. Originality that lasts almost never comes from the chattiest shape, but from a single deliberate departure on a simple silhouette. Here is how to sort the wheat from the chaff before you buy.
What makes an unusual bedside lamp without making it tiring
A successful unusual bedside lamp rests on a single departure. It may be the material, and that is the strongest lever: a raw block of real travertine cut into a cylinder needs no whimsy of shape to stand out, because the veining does all the work and is different on every piece. It may be the proportion, with a heavy base topped by a tiny diffuser, or the reverse. It may finally be asymmetry, an offset stem, a shade deliberately set askew. What fails, on the other hand, is the unusual bedside lamp that piles everything on at once, bright colour and animal shape and shiny material: the eye tires of it exactly as of an overloaded wallpaper, and in a bedroom that fatigue is paid for every evening.
The families of unusual bedside lamp that last
Three avenues stand the test of time. The first is sculpted stone: an unusual bedside lamp in alabaster turns translucent the moment it is lit and changes completely between day and night, which no shape can imitate. The second is worked solid wood, where solid walnut, turned or assembled in strips, gives a warm piece that ages well. The third is the diverted use, and this is where the most interesting of today’s solutions lies: the rechargeable cordless lamp, which you pick up by hand, carry out to the hallway and which plays the part of an unusual bedside lamp without ever looking like a bedside lamp. Avoid, however, the unusual bedside lamp whose concept rests on technology, a built-in speaker or a colour-changing alarm: technology goes out of fashion in three years, stone does not.
Checking how it is used before the style
An unusual bedside lamp is still a bedside lamp, and the same constraints apply. The bottom of the diffuser should come level with your chin when you are sitting up in bed, so an overall height of 35 to 45 centimetres on a standard bedside table: that is the rule set out in our guide to the designer bedside lamp. The switch must be reachable without leaning over, which many sculptural models forget by pushing the contact onto the cable. The footprint of the base counts just as much: a very wide unusual bedside lamp leaves no room for a book and a glass of water, and our guide to the small bedside lamp gives the sizes not to exceed. Finally, check that the diffuser does not let you see the bulb from a lying position, a frequent fault of open shapes.
Matching an unusual bedside lamp to the rest of the bedroom
A strong piece needs a calm setting. If you fit an unusual bedside lamp, keep the rest of the bedroom discreet: a simple flush ceiling light, restrained wall lights, and above all no other piece competing for attention. The reverse rule works too: in a very neutral bedroom, the unusual bedside lamp becomes the one element of character, and that is enough. Mismatching the two sides of the bed is allowed provided you keep one constant, the same material or the same height, otherwise the whole thing looks like leftovers from a house move. And keep a single light temperature for both bedsides, in warm white between 2,700 and 3,000 kelvins: an unusual bedside lamp loses all its interest if its light is ordinary or cold.
Conclusion
A single departure, in the material rather than the shape, and every practical constraint respected: that is the specification for an unusual bedside lamp you will not tire of. Stone and solid wood have the advantage here of making each piece unique with no effort of styling. Alborra’s bedside lamp collection states, for each model, its material, its height and its cap, the three pieces of information that let you judge something other than the photograph.
