Wall Sconces With Woven, Glass, Metal, and Linen Shades

A wall light puts the glow at eye level, where a ceiling fixture never reaches. That is why a room lit partly by sconces tends to feel softer in the evening, and why a pair of them can make a plain wall look furnished.

They also free up surfaces. A sconce beside the bed stands in for a table lamp without taking the table, and one over a reading chair saves the floor a lamp base. In a hallway too narrow for furniture, the walls are the only place left for a light.

The shade decides the mood. Woven raffia and jute give a warm, patterned glow, a glass globe spreads light all round, a metal dome aims it, and linen softens it. Before buying, check how each one gets its power, since some are wired into the wall and others plug in or recharge.

Rowabi Naia Rattan Sconce

Light through a woven shade comes out flecked and uneven, in the best way, and the Naia’s tapered raffia shade has the color of dry straw against a soft gold arm. It is as pleasant to look at switched off in the morning as lit at night.

The arm is hinged and swings out from the wall, which makes this a natural bedside light. Mount one each side of the bed and the tables beneath are free for books and a glass of water.

Dazuma Glass Ball Plug-In Wall Sconce

In the crook of a curved black arm rests a white glass globe, like a ball balanced on a fingertip. It is a small piece of sculpture as much as a lamp, and it looks as good switched off at noon as it does lit. A globe sends its light in every direction, the kind of glow a hallway or a stair landing wants. A pair flanking a mirror would give a long wall a center.

Tribesigns Vintage Wall Sconce With Faux Wood Arm

A pleated shade and a bobbin-turned arm are details from a much older kind of lamp, and this sconce brings them to the wall in miniature. The arm, with its row of rounded beads, is metal finished to look like dark turned wood, and the shade is pale linen gathered into soft scallops at the rim.

It is a pretty, slightly bookish light, the sort to hang beside a reading chair or above a writing desk in a room with floral curtains or striped wallpaper.

Dazuma Wooden Magnetic Wall Light With Glass Vase

Nothing about the little oak light needs an electrician. It runs on a rechargeable battery, topped up through a USB-C port, and magnets in the back let you lift it down to charge or to carry into another room. A touch on the front turns it on.

The slot in the upright holds a tiny glass vase, just big enough for a few dried stems. It is a charming thing for a rented apartment or a bookshelf nook, anywhere you would like a glow without running a cable.

Rowabi Arcoris White Metal Sconce

The Arcoris takes the shape of a barn light, a wide shallow dish on a swan-neck arm, and dresses it for indoors. The dish is ivory white outside and gold within, so its underside glows gold when the lamp is on, and the globe bulb hangs just below the rim like a pearl.

Over a kitchen shelf, above a desk, or in a row along a hallway, it lights what is beneath it and leaves the ceiling alone.

Dazuma Swing Arm Wall Lamp With Fabric Shade

Hotels have known for a long time that the most useful reading light is one you can pull toward the page and push away again. This is that lamp for home, with a tapered fabric shade on a jointed black arm that folds back to the wall when it is not wanted.

The square black backplate and plain shade keep it from belonging to any one style, so it is as easy to put beside a paneled headboard as a slatted modern one.

Tribesigns Boho Jute Wall Sconce, Set of 2

Sconces are at their best in pairs, and these come as one. The set is two matching lights with tall shades of wound jute on black candlestick arms. The rope is wrapped in fine vertical strands, and when the bulbs are on, the light shows between them.

Hang them either side of a mirror, a bed, or a doorway. Black metal and rough natural fiber is a combination that sits comfortably in a farmhouse room and in a coastal one.

Rowabi Goldie Globe Sconce

A frosted globe sits in a matching glass cup on a stem of brushed brass, and the Goldie ends up looking like a scoop of ice cream in a dish, with some of the same cheer. Everything is rounded, the backplate included, and the brass is soft, never shiny. It is a small fixture, easy to use where a wide one would crowd, beside a mirror or in the narrow strip of wall next to a door.

Dazuma Industrial Plug-In Glass Wall Sconce

Because it plugs into an ordinary outlet, the Dazuma bar light can go up on a wall that was never wired for a fixture, without calling an electrician. That makes it a good answer for a rental, or for a room where you would like to try a position before committing to it.

The look is plain workshop, with a black bar, two clear glass cylinders, and the bulbs fully on show, so it is worth buying attractive filament bulbs to go in them.

Rowabi Arco Handwoven Rattan Sconce

Tall and slender, the Arco climbs the wall on a long brass stem that curves out at the top to hold a small woven shade. Most of its length is that line of soft gold, which makes it a good fixture for a narrow space, such as the sliver of wall between two windows or the end of a hallway. Each shade is woven by hand from raffia, so no two are quite alike.

Dazuma Adjustable Hemispherical Plug-In Wall Lamp

A white dome on a brass knuckle, the lamp can be turned to point where it is needed, down at a book, across at a picture, or up to wash the wall. It is a task light with good manners, plain enough for a study and friendly enough for a child’s room.

The matte white shade against the small flash of brass is a tidy combination, and in a pale room the fixture nearly disappears until it is switched on.

Power and Hanging Height

A hardwired sconce connects to a junction box in the wall and is a job for an electrician unless you are experienced with household wiring. Plug-in and rechargeable lights need only fixing to the wall and, for the first kind, an outlet within reach of the cord. Beside a bed, hang the light so the bottom of the shade sits a little above your shoulder when you are sitting up to read.