Made for Mood

Mood lighting is a second light source, not a better ceiling light. Everything here throws a soft, low, coloured glow at a wall or into a corner, which is why a room reads completely differently at nine at night. The buyer photos and ratings on each listing carry more weight here than almost anywhere else, because a light is the hardest object to photograph honestly.

The wall pieces do the most work for the space they take. The Sunset Time Ambient Art Wall Lamp throws a coloured circle onto a wall, and it needs two things to look like the picture: a bit of distance and a fairly plain pale surface to land on. Textured or dark walls swallow it. The Modern Decor Eclipse Lunar Glow Wall Lamp and the 3D Vision Play Wall Lamp Art hold up as objects whether they are switched on or off, which matters for anything mounted in a hallway you pass all day. The Luminous Decorative Dimmable Artsy Led Light Painting sits closer to art than to lighting.

On tables the range runs from soft and floral to sharp and geometric. The Shiny Tulip Handmade Night Lamp and the Tulip Atmosphere Infinite Flowers Night Light use an infinity mirror effect, which makes a shallow base look like it goes down forever. The Shining Diamond Table Night Lamp and the Creative Artistic Orb Painting Table Lamp go the decorative object route, while the Flower Charm Nordic Style Table Lamp and the Nordic Mood Art Decorative Table Lamp keep things plain enough for a shelf you already like. The Mechanical Flip Rechargeable Night Lamp is built around the flip, so there is no app and no hunting for a button at midnight.

Several of these run on a battery, which changes where you can put them. The Glow Zero Mini Rechargeable Camping Lantern Flashlight, the Aluminum Nature Lume Camping Modern Lantern and the Atmosphere Led Strips Camping Lamp were built for a tent and work just as well on a balcony, in a power cut, or on a bedside table with no socket near it. Rechargeable is the first spec to check in this collection: a lamp that needs a cable trailing to it ends up living wherever the socket is, not where you wanted it.

What not to buy this for: reading. None of it is a task light, and a warm glow that makes a room feel good will have you squinting at a book inside ten minutes. Buy a proper desk or floor lamp for that, then put one of these in the corner behind it. Two last checks. Whether it dims, since full brightness is rarely the setting you want after dark. And what colour the light really is, because warm white and cool white read completely differently on a pale wall and the product shot is always the flattering one. The collection is deliberately small, so it is worth reading through rather than filtering.