These 12 Best Table Lamps for Your Desk — Perfect Glows for a Creative Home Office

The best table lamps for your desk is have a soft, targeted glow. Elevate your WFH set-up with these stylish picks endorsed by Style Editor Brigid Kennedy

table lamps for desks on a colorful background
(Image credit: Anthropologie, Target, Rejuvenation)

The best part of a home office isn't the lack of supervision or the freedom to work in your pajamas, but the chance to decorate your working space as you'd please. Sure, you have some personalization options when it comes to your cubicle, but nowhere are you more free to work underneath crazy wall art, for example, than typing away at home.

An integral piece of this decor is, of course, the table lamp for your desk. A desk lamp is, dare I say, a non-negotiable, so its fitting that some of the best table lamps you can buy fall into this category. Some are certainly chicer than others, given a desk lamp's function-first design, but there are still plenty of options that double as eye candy for the aesthetically inclined. 

A desk lamp should primarily 'perform the task of illuminating whatever page or screen you are reading,' said Jo Plant, head of design at Pooky, a designer lamp and lamp shade retailer, 'but especially after COVID and the increase in people working from home, bedrooms, hallways, and dining rooms suddenly became home offices.' That means desk lamps now 'need to look beautiful and perhaps even be less functional than traditional desk lamps.'

So welcome to my office, dear reader. Under the glow of my very own desk lamp, I have compiled a curated list of what I believe are the most practical yet chic desk lamps I could find, some of which cost as little as $60. It is my gift to you. And that is what we call working from home.

12 of the best table lamps for your desk

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Hungry for more? I get it — and I've got it. We've got edits of the best white table lamps, best blue and white table lamps, best table lamps for a bedroom, and best table lamps for a living room for you to peruse next.

What is the best size for a desk lamp?

A desk lamp is often identifiable by its size. The ideal height and width depends on that of your desk, said Dara Greaney, founder and CEO of LEDLightExpert.com, but since it's just for task lighting, 'it does not need to be big. It should be small enough to sit comfortably in the corner of your desk without you having to move stuff around for it to fit.'

'A desk lamp needs to be tall enough to fit over the top of a laptop screen (around 20”),' Jo added, 'and generally not take up too much space on a desk (or dining table!) so think about how wide the lamp base is, too.'

Brigid Kennedy
Style Editor

Brigid Kennedy is a style editor at Livingetc.com, where she is responsible for obsessively combing the internet for the best and most stylish deals on home decor and more. She was previously a story editor at TheWeek.com, where she covered both U.S. politics and culture. She describes her design style as colorful and clean, and in her free time enjoys reading, watching movies, and curating impossibly niche playlists on Spotify. She lives in New York.