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Ideal height of bedside lamp: 24”-30”
Ideal width of a bedside lamp: 12”-16”
Lamp placement on nightstand: Centered
Getting your bedroom looking just right means getting the perfect-sized bedside lamp. It all depends on your bed, the size of your room, and the size of your nightstand.
Bedside lamps come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. When you find the perfect one to pair with your space, it can totally change the feel of your room. For instance, I used to have skinny lamps that were not proportionate to my space. Once I got these big guys, I’m not kidding, the vibe of my room went from 0 to 100 real quick.
Let’s dive into the best height for your lamps and more lamp-size guidelines for your bedroom!
How Tall Should Bedside Lamps Be?
There is a bit of range associated with bedside lamp height.
The ideal height for a bedside lamp is: 24”-30”. Shade included.
For reference, my lamps are 24” tall and they go perfectly with my space.
Go to your bedroom right now and stand at the foot of your bed. Answer the following questions:
- Do you have a tall headboard?
- Are your nightstands roughly the same height as the bed?
- Do you have a king/queen bed?
If the answer is yes to all of these questions, you definitely want your lamp at least 24″ tall – but could err on the taller side of the range. It’s simply going to look more proportionate to have a taller lamp with a big, tall bed and ideally sized nightstands.
Having too small of a lamp is one of the biggest mistakes when it comes to bedroom decor, but the wrong-size nightstand may be even worse, so check out the nightstand size guide!
If you don’t have a tall headboard, then I would definitely stick to the shorter end of the range at 24”.
But here’s the thing, as you can see, I would answer yes to all of those questions yet my lamps are 24” tall…what gives? My lamps are wide and 24” is still tall for a lamp. Plus, my lamps are taller than half of the headboard which balances out the bed with the lamps. I could have gone with 30”, but I fell in love with how these looked!
Essentially lamp height is purely preference, but when you’re being proportionate with the bed and the rest of the room, you’ll be golden!
How Wide Should Bedside Lamps Be?
The ideal width for a bedside lamp is: 12”-16”. Shade included.
Your lampshade is always going to be the widest part of your lamp. I actually don’t think I’ve seen a lamp where the base of the lamp is wider than the shade lol. That would look totally bizarre! Anyway…
The width of your bedside lamp is going to depend on the size of your nightstands.
The widest part of your lampshade should be no more than half the width of your nightstand. It should also be no narrower than one-third the width of your nightstand. This will keep your lamp proportionate to your nightstand so that the lamp doesn’t look too large, or too small.
If you have narrow nightstands, it’s okay for your lamp to break the rules a little bit and be over half the width of the nightstand. However, your bedside lamp should never be wider than your nightstand.
Whatever direction you end up going in, you’re going to want to make sure you have enough room on your nightstand for things like drinking glasses or your phone. It can’t be all lamp!
Width of Lamp Base
Make sure your lamp base is wide. In the bedroom, a wider lamp base is better because we want the room to feel grand.
We also want the lamps to be proportionate with the big bed they are going next to. If you have small, narrow lamps in the bedroom, they are going to look out of place and won’t fill up the space appropriately. We are going for a big, grand feeling!
For reference, the base of my lamps are 11” wide with a 12” wide shade, on a 24” wide nightstand. The larger the room, the larger you can go (if your nightstand allows it)!
Lamp Placement on Nightstand
The best place for a bedside lamp on a nightstand is going to be directly centered on the nightstand.
Having the lamp in the center is going to balance out the nightstand and balance out the room. This should always be your first option. Especially if your lamp is going to be the focal point of your nightstand.
Now there are plenty of ways to style a nightstand, so I understand you may have other decor or functional items competing with the space. If you have other big decor on your nightstand, you can offset your lamp to one side.
I wouldn’t go as far as moving it to the edge, but as long as the rest of the decor balances out the nightstand, then shifting the lamp up to 4”-6” from the center shouldn’t be an issue.
Should bedside lamps be taller than the headboard?
The answer is up to personal preference!
For average-sized headboards, the way I look at it, try and find a happy medium, but a 24” tall lamp will most likely be perfect. I wouldn’t have your lamps towering over your headboard because this could make the bed, which should be the main focus of the room, feel small. In turn, this will make the room feel small.
To the same point, I wouldn’t have your lamps way shorter than the top of your headboard. Then the lamps will look small and get lost to the big bed. I would aim to have your lamps a couple of inches in either direction. They could also be the same height as the headboard.
For tall headboards, you will just want to make sure your bedside lamps are taller than half the headboard.
My headboard would be considered tall, and as you can see, my lamps are taller than half the board.
For no headboard, I would stick right around a 24” tall lamp. This way it adds height to your room, but the lamps won’t look totally out of place!
How big is too big for a bedside lamp?
If the widest part of your lamp is wider than half the nightstand, chances are it’s too big. However, as I said earlier, this is dependent on the size of your nightstand. So if you have a smaller nightstand that works in your space, you can bend this rule of thumb a little bit.
For height, a bedside lamp becomes too tall when it is over one and a half times the height of the nightstand it’s on. So you don’t want a super tall lamp on a short nightstand, and vice-versa.
Most nightstands aren’t going to be as deep as they are wide. As long as you have a couple of inches of nightstand surface in front and in the back of the lamp, you will be completely fine.
Chances are your bigger problem is going to be making sure your bedside lamp isn’t too small. The majority of the time lamps are too small for bedrooms. Following the size guidelines in this post will ensure you have the perfect size bedside lamp.
If you think a lamp is big, it probably isn’t. There are oversized lamps out there that are enormous, I mean HUGE. You probably aren’t going to be buying these. With lamps, in most cases, the bigger the better. Remember how we want to get that luxurious feel in the bedroom? Big, wide lamps are part of the equation!
Should bedside lamps match?
It depends. But in most cases, the answer is yes, your bedside lamps should match.
Most bedrooms have a natural symmetry to them. Stand at the foot of your bed again and what do you notice? You could draw a line straight down your bed and chances are it’s a perfect reflection of the other side.
Now take a look at the sides of your bed. If you have windows, your blinds and curtains are most likely matching. You also probably have matching nightstands.
If your bedroom has this kind of symmetry to it, you definitely aren’t going to want to switch it up with two different lamps. It will make the room feel unbalanced and that one asymmetrical lamp is going to really stand out.
Where do non-matching bedside lamps make the most sense? Well if you have less of this symmetry, and have more of an eclectic style to your room. Also if you simply just want two different lamps – remember, a lot of this is solely your preference!
So if you love it, go for it! If you have a lot of different furniture in your room, lots of decor on your nightstands, and lots of colors bursting throughout, then the idea of matching lamps might not matter so much to you!
How to shop for bedside lamps
When it comes to buying a lamp, there are many options to choose from. For the bedroom, keep it simple both in terms of color and shape. Since your bed is going to be where the pops of color live, I’d recommend sticking with a black, white, or neutral lamp.
Crazy lamp shapes will also draw too much attention to the lamp, so stick with simplicity. Unless that’s totally your thing, then nobody is stopping you. 😏
Here are some of the best bedside lamps I could find. If only I had enough bedrooms to fill with lamps, I’d buy them all! Oh and if you’re in love with my lamps, we’ve got the same taste. You can check them out here!
To recap:
- How tall should bedside lamps be? 24”-30”
- How wide should bedside lamps be? 12”-16”
- Lamp placement on the nightstand: Centered
Now you’re an expert at finding the perfect-sized bedside lamp! You should feel confident going and picking out the best lamp for your bedroom. You will be taking your room to the next level!
Your future is looking bright, quite literally. 😉 Happy lamp shopping!
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