Verity Tapered Column Alabaster Floor Lamp

The Verity Tapered Column Alabaster Floor Lamp is one continuous column of natural alabaster, wide at the floor and narrowing as it rises, standing on a slim brass disc and carrying a rectangular alabaster shade held by four small brass brackets. There is no visible stem, no cord running up a pole, no join halfway. The stone does the standing and the shading both. Which produces something most floor lamps cannot: the whole body glows, not just the shade. Light escapes downward into the column and travels through the stone, so the tapering shaft carries a soft internal warmth all the way to the floor while the rectangular shade sits above it like a lit panel. Switched off, the piece reads as pale sculpture rather than as a lamp waiting to be used — the veining visible in daylight, the brass disc catching a line of light at the floor. Suited to a living room corner, beside a sofa or reading chair, in an entry, or in a bedroom where a tall quiet object does more than a bright one. In natural white alabaster with a brass base. Natural Alabaster Naturally Unique Veining No two pieces of stone are ever the same Alabaster is a natural stone, so every piece carries its own veining and subtle variation in color. The fixture you receive may therefore differ slightly from the images shown. An inherent characteristic of real stone — not a quality defect. Real Photo Switching it on A Round Switch on the Floor — Turn It On With Your Foot No reaching up into a paper shade, no feeling around a wall for a plate that isn't there. The switch sits on the cord, on the floor, where your foot already is. Which matters more than it sounds on a lamp like this. A tall paper column has nothing you would want to reach into — and because it plugs in rather than wires in, it usually stands somewhere with no wall switch anywhere near it. One tap with your toe, on your way past. Press With Your Toe A round pedal switch you can find without looking down — no small rocker to hunt for in the dark, and no need to bend. Hands Stay Free Turn it on carrying a cup, a book, or a laundry basket. Nothing to hold, nothing to put down first. No Wall Switch Needed It plugs into any socket and brings its own switch with it — so it works in a corner no wall switch reaches. Specifications The Details Material Genuine Natural Alabaster Column & Shade · Brass base and brackets Stone cut and hand-polished; metal electroplated and finished. Finish Natural White Alabaster · Gold Light source E26 bulb — LED recommended Bulbs not included. Standard US screw base. See the note below on why LED matters here. Power Max 40W Voltage AC 110–240V Control Foot switch on the cord — on / off Not a dimmer. See the note below on how to dim it. Cord 150 cm / 59″ with switch plug Extended on request — ask before ordering. Installation Plug and play — no hardwiring, no electrician Environment Indoor, dry locations only Preparation time 5–10 days Made and inspected at our own workshop before dispatch. Good to Know How to dim it — the foot switch alone will not The pedal on the cord is on/off only, and fitting a dimmable bulb changes nothing by itself because there is no dimmer for it to work with. Two things do work: plug the lamp into an in-line plug-in dimmer, or fit a smart bulb you dim from your phone. Either costs very little, and beside a sofa most people eventually want the option — worth deciding before it arrives. Size Guide Two Inches Apart — Choose by the Furniture The two sizes are closer than most people expect. What decides it is not the height, but how wide the shade should read beside whatever it stands next to. SmallNarrower spaces W 15.7″ × H 63″ 40 × 160 cm · base ∅ [__ BASE] BesideA slim reading chair, a console, a narrow corner, or a bedside WhyThe shade stays within the footprint of a single chair rather than reaching over it — right where floor space is tight. The safer pick if you're unsure. Under-scaled reads as restrained; over-scaled reads as a mistake. LargeMost chosen W 17.7″ × H 65″ 45 × 165 cm · base ∅ [__ BASE] BesideA deep sofa, a wide armchair, or standing alone in a living-room corner WhyTwo extra inches of shade holds its own next to a full-depth sofa, where the smaller one can start to look under-scaled. The version most living rooms want. The design Nothing Is Holding It Up Except Itself Take away the pole and the lamp has to become the structure. Look at almost any floor lamp and you will find the same three parts: a base to stop it falling, a pole to gain height, and a shade to soften the bulb. Two of those three exist only to serve the third. The pole does nothing you would ever want to look at — it is scaffolding, tolerated because the shade has to get up to eye level somehow. Verity was drawn by asking what happens if you delete it. The stone column is the structure and the lamp at once: it stands on its own weight, carries the shade, hides the wiring inside itself, and — because alabaster passes light — glows rather than interrupting. There is no pole because there is nothing left for a pole to do. Which is why it tapers. A column that met the floor at the same width it meets the shade would read as a pillar — heavy, architectural, a little severe. Widening toward the ground does two things at once: it puts the mass low, where a lamp this tall needs it, and it lets the form rise and narrow the way a thing does when it is reaching rather than propping. The thin brass disc underneath is the only concession to hardware, and it exists mostly to lift the stone a few millimetres off the floor so the base catches a line of light. The shade above is deliberately squared. A round shade on a round column would be one shape repeated; a rectangle on a taper is two ideas meeting, and the meeting is what your eye recognises from across a room. Both are the same stone, cut from the same quarried block — so the veining that runs up the column carries on through the shade, and no two lamps are marked the same way. — One stone, standing and shining at once — Questions, Answered Common Questions What actually glows, which of the two sizes to take, and how to live with solid stone. Which of the two sizes should I choose? Honestly, they are very close. The small is 15.7″ wide × 63″ tall; the large is 17.7″ wide × 65″ tall. Two inches either way — nobody walking into the room will be able to tell them apart. So decide on the shade width against the furniture beside it, not on height. Next to a deep sofa or a wide armchair the 17.7″ keeps the proportion; in a narrow corner, an entry, or beside a slim reading chair the 15.7″ sits better. If you genuinely cannot choose, take the smaller one — an under-scaled lamp reads as restrained, an over-scaled one reads as a mistake. Is it bright enough to read by? No — it is an ambient lamp. Stone diffuses light in every direction instead of aiming it, so you get a warm even glow with no beam and nothing harsh anywhere. That suits a corner, a sofa side, or a bedroom. If you read in that chair, pair it with a directional reading light. Expecting one soft stone lamp to do both jobs is how people end up disappointed with it. Do I need an electrician? No. It plugs into an ordinary socket — nothing to hardwire, nothing to drill, and no permission needed if you rent. There is a foot switch on the cord, so you turn it on with your toe rather than reaching up into the shade. The cord is 59″, which reaches along a wall but not across a room — check where your nearest outlet is, and ask us for a longer cord when you order if you need one. Can I dim it? Not with the foot switch — that is on/off only. And a dimmable bulb on its own does nothing, because there is no dimmer for it to work with. This catches a lot of people out. Two things do work: an in-line plug-in dimmer between the lamp and the wall, or a smart bulb you dim from your phone. Both are inexpensive, and beside a sofa most people eventually want the option. How heavy is it? Heavy — it is solid stone on a brass disc, not a hollow shade on a metal pole. Ask us for the exact figure if you are carrying it upstairs or standing it on a delicate floor. Mostly that is good news: it will not be knocked over by a child, a dog or a vacuum cleaner, and it needs no wide sprawling base to stay upright. The trade-off is simply that it is not a lamp you move on a whim — choose the spot and plan to leave it there. Which bulb should I use? A standard E26 screw bulb, not included — and choose LED. Not for fire safety; stone does not burn. It is about heat. A filament bulb warms the stone every evening and lets it cool every night, and that repeated expansion and contraction is where hairline cracks start in any natural stone. An LED barely warms it. Pick warm white, 2700–3000K — cool white through alabaster looks grey and drains the warmth out of the brass. Why doesn't my lamp look like the photographs? Because the stone is quarried, not moulded. The veining running through your column will be its own — different pattern, different depth of colour, and it will catch the light its own way. On a piece this large that variation is the first thing anyone notices, and it is exactly what tells you the stone is real. A column that matched the photograph precisely would have to be resin. Will the stone yellow over time? No. Natural alabaster is mineral, not plastic — it holds its colour for decades and gives off no odour when warm, which is the usual failing of resin and acrylic imitations. Kept in a dry indoor spot it simply develops a faint patina with the years rather than degrading. How do I clean it? A soft dry cloth on both the stone and the brass. Keep water off the alabaster — it is porous, absorbs it, and leaves a mark that will not buff out. No sprays, no polish, nothing abrasive. Switch off and let the bulb cool first. Once or twice a year is plenty. Can I use it in a bathroom or a conservatory? No — indoor dry rooms only. Alabaster is porous, so steam and damp are bad for the stone as well as the wiring. Living rooms, bedrooms, entries and studies are all fine. Pairs well with The Same Stone, at Three Heights A floor lamp fills the corner. These two take the ceiling and the wall — so one room is lit by the same material from every level rather than by three unrelated fixtures. Overhead Alabaster Rivage Round Chandelier Ceiling · hardwired The ceiling half of the room. Where the floor lamp warms a corner, this holds the centre — a round of natural stone above a table or an entry, glowing with the same soft light and showing the same veining. From $1,260.00 View Details Wall Elowen Alabaster Teardrop Wall Sconce Wall mounted · Indoor dry rooms Eye level, and no floor at all. A tapered stone teardrop that echoes the column's silhouette on a wall — beside a bed, a mirror, or down a hallway where a floor lamp would be in the way. From $495.00 View Details