Panthella 250 vs 320 vs 400: Which Table Lamp Size

Verner Panton's Panthella comes in several sizes, and on a screen they look interchangeable: the same hemispherical dome, the same trumpet base, the same proportion between the two. Scale is what decides everything else, from the surface the lamp can stand on to how much of a room it can carry after dark. This guide sets the Panthella 250, 320 and 400 table lamps beside each other, with the floor version as the far end of the family.

One silhouette, drawn at four scales

Panton created the Panthella with Louis Poulsen in 1971 as a light sculpture: a lamp with no visible light source, in which every surface either emits light or reflects it. The opal acrylic dome glows evenly across its whole face, while the trumpet base beneath it works as a reflector, sending light back down onto the surface and up into the shade. None of that geometry changes as the lamp grows. A small Panthella and a Panthella Floor Lamp are the same drawing at two magnifications, which is why the sizes sit together well in one home rather than competing.

The materials shift slightly with size. The Panthella 320 Table Lamp V2 pairs an injection-moulded opal acrylic shade with an injection-moulded polycarbonate base and a high-lustre chrome-plated top nut. The Panthella 400 Table Lamp uses a white opal acrylic shade over a white plastic base and top. The Panthella Floor Lamp adds a white lacquered steel stem, because the height needs a structural core the table versions do not.

The sizes side by side

Read the diameters as footprint first. A dome measuring 400 mm across needs a surface deeper than 400 mm before it stops overhanging the edge, and the trumpet base wants a little clearance around it so the reflected light has somewhere to go. That single number rules out more combinations than any other spec on the list.

Panthella 250: bedside tables and narrow shelves

At 250 mm across and 335 mm tall, the Panthella 250 Table Lamp V2 is the version that fits where a full-size lamp cannot: a shallow bedside table, a shelf in a hallway, the corner of a desk already holding a screen. It is also the only one of the four with light built in. The integrated LED runs at 2700 K and dims through a touch dimmer under the top nut, with a timer function, so there is no cord switch to hunt for in the dark and no bulb to source.

This V2 edition is finished in orange opal acrylic, and the colour changes how it behaves: shade and stem both glow warm, so the lamp itself becomes a spot of colour in the room even before you judge the light it throws. That colourway belongs to the previous generation and has since been withdrawn by Louis Poulsen, so it is a fixed quantity rather than an ongoing choice. If you are working with tight surfaces throughout, our notes on designer lighting for small apartments cover the same problem across other series.

Panthella 320: the size that suits most rooms

The Panthella 320 V2 is the middle of the range and, for most homes, the default. A 32 cm shade at 438 mm tall is large enough to read as sculpture on a sideboard by day and small enough to leave a bedside table usable. At 3.7 kg it stays where you put it without being awkward to move between rooms, and the 2.5 m cord gives real freedom about which socket you use.

It is the only size in this comparison offered in two finishes, opal white and opal beige. The white is the neutral reading of Panton's shape and disappears against a pale wall until it is switched on. The beige warms the whole object slightly, which suits oak, brass and linen better than the cooler white does. The light source is an E14 fitting with the switch on the cord, so the bulb is your decision.

Panthella 400 and the floor lamp: when the room has space

The Panthella 400 restores the original 1971 proportions: a 40 cm dome at 550 mm tall, weighing 5.6 kg. This is the size that stops being an accent and starts being the light in a corner. Panton's idea of a lamp with no visible source pays off most here, because the larger the shade, the more surface there is to diffuse, and a big glowing hemisphere at full brightness still does not sting when you look straight at it. Give it a console, a wide desk or the end of a sideboard where nothing crowds the base, and let it carry a seating area on its own in the evening.

The Panthella Floor Lamp takes the same logic to 1290 mm, on a 500 mm footprint, at 12.7 kg. It stands where a table cannot: next to a reading chair, in the dead corner of a room, near a window where the profile is worth seeing by day. Because the shade sits above seated eye level and diffuses evenly, it can stand in for the ceiling light for a whole evening, trading overhead brightness for something lower and calmer. Both use an E27 fitting with a switch on the cord.

Choosing by surface, not by photograph

Work through it in this order. Measure the depth of the surface first and remove anything that overhangs. Then look at the height of the surface itself: a lamp on a low bedside table can be short, because your eye meets it lying down, while a console at hip height already lifts the lamp most of the way, so a taller model there can feel top-heavy against a wall. Finally, decide what the lamp is for. One reading pool beside a bed points to the 250 or the 320. A single source meant to hold a corner after the ceiling light goes off points to the 400 or the floor lamp.

Two practical notes. The 250 has its LED and dimmer built in, so it is the one to pick if you want dimming without a wall dimmer or a smart bulb. The 320, 400 and floor lamp all take a bulb you choose yourself, which means you set the warmth and output, and all three switch on the cord rather than on the body. To compare these against the rest of the range, from Bauhaus re-editions to cordless designs, see the full table lamps collection.