The best floor and bedside lamps from South African sellers

The numbers are the strongest on this shelf: 4.8 from 50 shoppers, which is a lot more agreement than the single ratings attached to most of the table lamps here. It also arrives with its shade, a black fabric one with gold accents, so the listed price is the price.

At 155cm it sits in proper floor lamp territory, tall enough to throw light across a seating area rather than pool it on a side table. It is comfortably in the lower half of this field on price, well under the wooden and linen options.

The look is doing a specific thing, black with gold, and the listing is honest about that. If your room is already leaning warm metals it will fold right in.

The catch. Gold accents are a commitment. In a room with brushed steel or all-black fittings it will read as the odd one out.

180cm of black metal with a white acrylic shade, rated 4.7 from 55 shoppers. That is the biggest rating count in the group, on the lowest price, which is a combination worth taking seriously.

Acrylic diffuses rather than directs, so going by the spec this is a soft general light for a corner, a reading chair or a spare room. Plain enough that it will not fight anything else in the space.

If you need two lamps to balance a long lounge, this is the one that makes buying a pair painless.

The catch. Acrylic is not linen or glass, and at this price expect it to look like what it costs up close.

Rechargeable LED standing lamps solve a real problem. Plenty of South African homes have a corner or a stoep with no socket anywhere useful, and an extension cord across a walkway is not a plan.

Six shoppers rate it 5.0. That is a small sample, but it is unanimous, and the price sits near the bottom of this field.

Being cordless also means it can follow you around, from the table to the balcony to the load-shedding dinner.

The catch. The listing does not state brightness, run time or charge time, so you are buying on the concept more than the numbers.

Hertex HAUS is specific about what you get, a curved steel stand and a hand-stitched linen shade. Linen gives a warmer, softer light than acrylic, and hand-stitched is a detail the cheaper listings do not claim.

This is roughly double the next most expensive lamp on the shelf and many times the top pick. It earns that only if you want an object with presence in a room you have already finished, not a functional corner light.

No ratings yet, so you are buying on the maker's reputation and the spec.

The catch. No shopper ratings and no stated height. Ask before you commit if scale matters.

At 46cm it is a sensible bedside height, and the wooden and resin frame is a different material story to all the metal elsewhere here. It sits near the bottom of the price range for this maker.

One shopper rates it 4.0. Thin evidence, but the maker's range is deep and consistent in how it is described, which suggests a house style rather than a one-off.

The catch. Sold without a shade. Budget for one, or the lamp does not really work yet.

Decide the height before the style. Around 150cm and up is a floor lamp that lights a seating area. Anything from roughly 40cm to 70cm is a table or bedside lamp and needs a surface to stand on. Getting this wrong is the most common lamp regret.

Read the title for the words excluding shade. A good few table lamps are sold as the base only, which is fine if you enjoy choosing shades and annoying if you expected a working lamp in the box. Add the shade cost before you compare prices.

Shade material decides the light. Fabric and linen soften and warm it, acrylic spreads it flatly, and an open or metal shade sends it up and down in a narrow column. For reading you want the light aimed at you; for atmosphere you want it bounced off a wall.

Weight ratings by how many people left them. A 5.0 from one shopper tells you almost nothing. A 4.7 from fifty tells you the thing arrives intact and looks like the photo. And check whether the lamp needs a plug point where you actually want it to stand, because rechargeable models exist for exactly that reason.