Geschenke 
Ask which one to buy, a floor lamp or a table lamp, and most advice answers with taste instead of function. Pick whichever fits your style. That's fine if you're decorating a room from scratch, but it skips the actual question: what job does the light need to do, and where in the room does it need to happen from.
The two aren't interchangeable, even though they often get treated that way in a single "lighting" category on a furniture site.
What a floor lamp is actually for
A floor lamp fills a room from a height nothing else does, roughly shoulder height when you're seated, which is what makes it useful as a main light source rather than an accent. A 160cm floor lamp with a dome shade throws light up and out, softening a room the way an overhead fixture never does. Where floor space is limited, a curved arc floor lamp with a marble base solves the same problem by reaching out over a sofa or chair instead of needing space of its own.
The tradeoff is obvious once you notice it: a floor lamp takes up actual floor space, and it needs to sit somewhere a cord can reach an outlet without crossing a walking path.
What a table lamp is for
A table lamp does its best work close to where you sit, at a height near eye level once you're seated on a sofa or in bed. That's what makes a small glass and iron table lamp better for reading or winding down than any overhead source, and why a ceramic table lamp on a nightstand does more for a bedroom's mood than brightness alone ever could.
It won't light a whole room on its own, and it doesn't try to. That's a feature, not a shortcoming: a table lamp is built for a five-foot radius, not the whole floor plan.
Side by side
| Floor lamp | Table lamp | |
|---|---|---|
| Best job | Main light source for a room | Close, focused light near where you sit |
| Height | Fills a room from shoulder height | Sits near eye level when seated |
| Space needed | Floor space plus a nearby outlet | A side table, shelf, or nightstand |
| Weak point | Can be knocked or tripped over in a tight space | Limited range, won't light a whole room |
The answer is probably both, just not at once
Most rooms benefit from having one of each rather than two of one. A floor lamp for general evening light, a table lamp for the specific spot where you read or wind down, each turned on for the situation it's built for instead of running both at all times. That's less about buying more lamps and more about giving each one a clear job instead of asking one fixture to do everything.
If you're only adding one lamp this round, start with whichever gap is more obvious: no main light source in the evening means a floor lamp first, no cozy spot to read or relax means a table lamp. Browse the full range of floor and table lamps to compare what's built for each job.
