The Dome Lamp took two years
A table lamp should be the simplest thing we make. Getting the shade to stay cool took most of the time.
Ines Marlow4 min read
We drew the Dome Lamp in an afternoon in 2024. A half sphere on a stem, on a base heavy enough that a cat cannot knock it over. Then we spent two years on the parts you cannot see.
A shade you can touch
A painted steel shade over a bulb gets hot. People adjust a table lamp by the shade, so we wanted it cool enough to hold after a whole evening. The answer was to move the light: the LED sits on an aluminium plate in the stem, facing up into a white reflector, and the shade only ever sees reflected light.
After four hours at full brightness the shade measures 31 °C, a little warmer than your hand.
Dimming down to a glow
Most dimmable LEDs flicker or switch off below a tenth of their brightness. We wanted the lamp to go all the way down to a night light, so we use a driver that dims by current rather than by switching the light on and off very fast. At its lowest it gives about 8 lumens, enough to find a glass of water.
The best lamp is the one you leave on low all evening and forget about.
The Ochre colourway is new this winter. It is the colour of the light itself at its lowest setting.
Ines Marlow, Co-founder, design