The direct glare from a bare bulb can actually damage the eye. Use lampshades to both block the eye from directly seeing the bulb, and to direct the light where you want it to go. A common form of the lampshade on a floor lamp, for example, uses cloth or paper with a loose weave to block significant amounts of light in a horizontal direction. At the same time, the shade permits light to flow from the top and bottom. This allows light to be more focused below the shade – perhaps for the use of the person sitting in a nearby chair, to permit them to read more easily – and some light to flow to the ceiling, where it is reflected and becomes part of the ambient light in the room. By blocking the light horizontally, those sitting or walking are unlikely to have the direct glare of the bulb hit them in the eye. Instead, they have the softer reflected light from the ceiling and the much-diffused light through the shade. A torchiere shade will, instead, project most of the light upwards. Torchieres are part of accent lighting and general lighting, rather than task lighting. This shade not only allows some light to flow upwards, adding to ambient light, but some are flowing downwards, to highlight the objects below it. And of course, the shade itself is a statement of some sort.
