Lighting is so vital to good design, without proper illumination the entire space — no matter how pretty — can make your home (and even you) look less that the best. Crate and Barrel has some great lamps out this season, some are quite mod and the colors are all very lively and there are some fun shapes in the mix, too. My favorite is the Lasso black desk light because it looks very Scandinavian and I can see it on a white wooden desk with a black and white striped throw rug beneath and misc. decorative accents in emerald green or perhaps even an emerald green wall behind the desk. I’m really liking the color combination lately of green, black and white for some reason. Oh that would be pretty. Here are few lamps from C&B that caught my eye, but I’m going to wrap this up with a budget tip for those of you who aren’t looking to lay down the bucks on a lamp right now…
a.Mod aqua table lamp, b. Pagoda table lamp, c. Swell lamp, d. Marina table lamp and Lasso desk lamps.
Some of these shapes make you think twice about those ugly lamps sitting in the second hand shops for $5 don’t they? What I mean is that if a lamp has a good shape to it, why not imagine it in your favorite color — take it home and transform it into something special if you cannot always afford a brand new lamp – just spray the base with paint – bring blue, pink, white, orange… You can even buy a simple white drum shade to top it from a store like IKEA or Target and if you want to coordinate the lamp shade with the base, glue some grosgrain ribbon around the top of the lampshade and again around the bottom and there you have it – a lovely lamp for a low price.
(images: crate and barrel)
May 7th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Amen on personalizing something with great bones. Love the idea of colors and pretty shades!
Happy Friday!
Laura
.-= Laura @ PARING DOWN´s last blog ..Apothecary Jar Giveaway! =-.
May 8th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
extending the DIY lamp further – depending on your level of ambition and skill, vintage vases can be refitted if you want ceramic bases in specif colors and shapes. that requires wiring and drilling, but some lighting shops will convert them for you. you can curate a collection by scale, shape, and color family, perhaps echo an existing ceramics collection. you can go further with shade customization and apply fabric with spray adhesive, although I recommend testing it first to see if you like how the fabric reads when the lamp is lit.
May 9th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
i love the task lamps. wonderful blog. thanks for sharing.
May 10th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Yes! I just recently took a lackluster used-to-be-cheap brass-but-now-weird silver lamp and spray painted it shiny purple. Bought an interesting shade on clearance at Pier 1 and am totally happy with it now. This inspired me to finally post a photo of it on my blog. Thanks for thinking of budget-friendly alternatives – sometimes that’s lacking on a lot of the design blogs.
.-= Emily´s last blog ..Choosing colors =-.
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:26 am
These table lamps are really very cute! Seems that they can make the interior of a room brighter. Thanks for the post!