Get a glow-up: Here are the top lighting picks of 2026 

From fabulous floor lamps to chic chandeliers, here's how to switch up every room with the season’s sparkling trends

Murano chandelier, Murano Classics, above left; New Wave Optic wall lamp, right; and the Kartell Kabuki, below left.

Looking for something fabulous to fly up on a ceiling or wall, or to put grace on a table? Let’s check out the leading luminaries lighting us up for AW 2026.

Globe gorgeous

Opaque glass globes are an established classic that read as oversized bulbs but without the glare that killed off the industrial Edison-bulb trend. Set on quality metal mounts, they can be as big as pumpkins or spiked like fruit on a horizontal electrolier.

The Aura floor lamp by Hestia & Co recalls Bauhaus (1930s) with those pure lines, bubbling shades and chrome belting. It could equally have sat in the launch pad of a mid-century Sputnik-inspired conversation-pit.

Aura floor lamp by Hestia & Co. Floor models in framed globes from €369.

The Aura also comes in a groovy telescopic floor lamp — gifting design interest to a dull room with low ceilings. Various models, floor-standing, €369 to order online, Hestiaco.co.uk.

Budget buy? I’m fascinated by the strung-up globe style of the Lucande Darrow floor lamp (LED), a steal at €165.90, lights.ie. With large white lens-like glass or acrylic shades, use a bulb with a trending golden hue of 2000K to 3000K to avoid chill.

Globe lights in the bathroom? Hideous? Not necessarily. Marmo by Maraki are hollow marble and alabaster stone balls for bathrooms or bedrooms that glow with crystalline veins and mineral inclusions, from €149 a piece, Shopmeraki.co (taxes included).

If you’re tempted by true vintage globe lighting, be wary of cracked glass, flaking chrome frames and supports (electroplating is expensive) and any rusting. Always pay for a professional rewire by a RECI-qualified electrician if in any doubt.

Italian tradition

Tiered chandeliers with tube elements (authentic Venini and duped) are sure-fire interiors jewellery. Unlike densely packed fixed prisms or trembling cut-glass drops, modernist moulded waterfall chandeliers diffract and diffuse in a softer glow. These are investment-level heirlooms with a unique dimensionality.

A wow since the 1940s, and still widely produced in Italy, you’ll have a choice in design, colour and glass type. My choice would be variegated pink alabaster tubes. Expressive dahlia pinks are a sumptuous trend for 2026 that’s effervescent flown against dramatic jewel darks, and cool and warmer neutrals.

Murano chandelier: 78-element, pink alabaster-style glass chandelier, shown with patinated chrome frame; made to order, €2990, Murano Classics.

Chandeliers and any larger pendant should be in proportion to the space and hung at the correct height to avoid their weakest aesthetic angles. No one will admire a Brussels sprout clinging to the plasterwork, or a flashy thug loitering in the sight-lines (unless suspended over a table).

For a minimum diameter for the widest tier, add the depth and width of the room in metres, multiply by 10 and convert this to centimetres.

Depth of chandelier? Multiply the height of the ceiling in metres by 20-25 and convert to centimetres. Prices for Italian models range from €1200, or try Rockett St George for modern tubulars in pink waved glass from €810; see Rockettstgeorge.co.uk.

Lightweight lovelies

Statement pendants are often best used off-set, or to zone function areas and to light a dining table. Going large, if we use soft-looking materials in organic forms, a seriously large light fixture can hang as lightly as a morning mist.

Normann Copenhagen has released a range of Phantom lamps in a semi-transparent resin, and I’m inclined towards the ceiling model which shows its bones with the steel frame straining through the shade. This is typical of the designer Simon Legald, who likes to indicate the structure of his pieces. 

Phantom pendant by Normann Copenhagen, from €796.

The Japanese lantern-inspired Phantoms include a whimsical floor lamp with a thick stem — highly sculptural if you want something arty but minimalist on or off; from €796-€1421, normann-copenhagen.com.

With this style of voluminous pendant, pick a set shape (they generally follow the lines of chandeliers, plants and fungi) or loosen them up into an asymmetric cumulus cloud.

A close dupe of the weightless flight as the Phantom? The Japandi-inspired Plu pendant starts at €115 at Lampandlight.ie.

When going over a table with any light fitting, don’t drop down below 75cm off the table-top — it will seriously interrupt eye contact and conversation.

Desk dash

With desk lamps (and even many floor lamps), bulb housings and shades remain crisp and clean and tightly edited. With the boot sale rodeo leaping around on my desk, I really welcome this paring back to a single sweet sketch of a light. If you’re a complete newbie to Scandinavian design, start with one brand — Hay (Denmark).

Hay Apex, from €95; suppliers include LampTwist.

Its Apex lamp would work at a bedside, on a side-table where you don’t want any glare, or very well as a working lamp in a home office. Its simplicity is what makes it really shine — just a round pressed-steel base, a stem with a couple of turns, and a fold of chrome-coated aluminium over the bulb in your choice of colour; from €95, suppliers including lamptwist.com.

A close contender for my affection (she’s just adorable) — take a shy peek at the Hester by Lucide, a perfect alternative for the celebrated and expensive Muuto Tip (€240).

With her sleek, bucket-style bonnet and flirty angles, Hester seems to be leaning in to peek curiously over a document. A lofty 53cm tall, she comes dressed in a searing, icy white, and has a floor lamp variety that’s rotatable and tiltable with a pleasing balance and geometric flair; from €60-€80.

Always aim for a wash of light, bounced off the table or against the rear wall to save your squinting eyes.

Wonder walls

The wall light is often pushed aside in favour of ceiling spots, but this year has seen a surge in popularity for wall washers, uplighters, up-downs and sconces, many celebrating our enduring love of textured and coloured glass. Warm metals never really went away, and this year brass is adding polish to our more personable, busy interiors. Team it to blown glass in semi-opaque marbled glass or, best of all, some art deco jazz.

British maker Pooky has several stunning metal sconces this year. Jet is my favourite. Handsome from every angle, it’s streamlined, vaguely antique, with a reeded shade in either clear or frosted glass. Around €135.50 plus delivery, pooky.com.

The M&S Monroe is just €65 and has similar deco traces with less detailing, Marksandspencer.com (check out M&S well-priced ribbed and vintage glass fittings).

New Wave Optic wall lamp, €445, Lampmasters.

Hand-blown and throwing glamorous starbursts over any wall, the New Wave Optic wall lamp will elevate the dullest hall to Hollywood Regency. Available in a range of candy colours from €445, Lampmasters.ie.

Wall light height is 150cm to 170cm for most wall situations, lower if you’re flanking a bed.

Taking the floor

Floor lamps have trotted left and right — celebrating both willowy, polite, almost not-even-there supports for a directional spot, or coming out in tactile, over-stated, dramatic forms intended to grab attention and stand to attention in layered, characterful decorating.

In retro forms, the standard lamp refuses to go away, but its survival is largely about playing with the shade. 

Floor uplighter, 182cm, €35, Ikea.

Suited to wall washes, or ideal for switching on when you want to read a book in your favourite chair, Ikea’s superbly spare, well-engineered (and cheap) PS 2026 uplighter floor lamp by Dutch designer Lex Pott was widely praised at Salone del Mobile in Milan this year. With a minute trumpet head set on an exaggerated, elegant stem of flexible joints, it’s just €35 for a dash of colourful postmodern design.

The iconic Kartell Kabuki by Ferruccio Laviani, from €1,200.

In the fancy section, Kabuki is a neo-baroque-inspired torchiere fashioned by Ferruccio Laviani for Kartell. Ten years after its launch, it is still fashion-forward and available in indoor and outdoor versions.

Made of transparent, batch-dyed techno-polymer thermoplastic, it recalls the texture of lace with a vaguely wine glass silhouette. The Kabuki is iconic in all colours, but I’m going to argue for black to tame its wicked splendour.

Dimmable and energy efficient, the large Kabuki starts at €1200. If you’re not sure why you would add a floor lamp, think about the number of horizontal pieces all over the room. Even switched off, floor lamps draw the eye up — adding balance and interest to shadowy, orphaned spaces.