The Wisteria table lamp is a true Pooky classic, lighting up lovely homes for over a decade. In this post we revisit the beloved light and try to put our finger on what makes it such a timeless winner…
The Wisteria has been with us for over a decade now, and it still feels like a very sensible thing to put in a room. Not too showy, not a slave to trends, but just absolutely right.
That’s usually a sign that something’s been designed properly. Here’s why it works so well, and never seems to go out of style…
It starts with the shape
If you strip the Wisteria right back, it’s almost disarmingly simple: a big glass cylinder on a solid brass base, and that’s about it.
It doesn’t really have anything unnecessary or flamboyant about it – no decorative flourishes or odd angles. The glass is gorgeous, the base supports it… job done.
But of course in design, apparent simplicity is often deceptive. The trick is that the proportions have to be right. Get those wrong and the whole thing collapses. Get them right and you end up with something that feels calm and balanced wherever you put it, be it a bedside table, console, sideboard, grand country house or modern flat.
That’s what the Wisteria has always done very well: whatever the room or its surroundings, it won’t argue with them.
Clear glass, for obvious reasons
We started with clear glass because, frankly, it made sense. It keeps the lamp light on its feet and lets the bulb and the shade do their thing.
It feels like it belongs in a room, rather than being placed there to make a ‘statement’. Which is usually a good sign you won’t get tired of it.
And it turns out that when you get that bit right, people start doing interesting things with it…
Shades: knock yourself out
One of the pleasures of the Wisteria has been watching what people pair it with. It works just as well with big gathered cotton shades as with clean drum ones.
The base doesn’t mind, it’s remarkably tolerant. So its versatility is surely a reason for its longevity.
Going cordless: now the Wisteria can pop up anywhere…
And that versatility of course meant that when we started creating rechargeable lamps that were actually beautiful, the Wisteria was crying out for the cordless treatment.
It meant that people could put the Wisteria in places where sockets stubbornly refused to exist, like shelves, window ledges or tables that move around, including into the garden.
And of course it looks splendid everywhere.
…Including on the ceiling
This was one of those moments where you look at a design and realise it might be able to do more than you originally asked of it. The Wisteria flush ceiling light takes the same basic idea – glass and brass in a circular arrangement – and quite literally turns it upside down.
Why it’s still here
If you line up all the versions of the Wisteria now – table lamp, cordless, ceiling light – what’s pleasing is how little the original idea has been messed with.
It really hasn’t needed rescuing or ‘updating’, it’s just been allowed to stretch its legs a bit.
That’s what makes it a proper Pooky classic. Here’s to many more years of enjoying the Wisteria!...