Dwindling Daylight

As the days move towards the winter solstice, the sun rises later and sets earlier. We spend much more of our waking time immersed in night without the freedom to light our homes by simply opening the blinds or pulling the curtains open. Artificial lighting takes on a more appreciated role in day-to-day activities when the sun is sinking below the horizon at 4:30 in the afternoon, and Lamp Select is your source for indoor and outdoor lighting solutions that are stylish and practical.

It’s perfectly normal to feel not so enthused about the day when you rise from bed to the darkness of night. It’s similarly depressing when you watch night return in the late afternoon before you’ve even left work, and the feeling is augmented by the fact it’s almost always in sharp contrast to the Indian summer we’re only a month and some removed from. This makes it all the more important to have home lighting pieces that not only fill your space with light but provide a sense of comfort as well as you steel yourself to this aspect of the long winter ahead.

A chandelier is no longer exclusively within the domain of traditional decors. Adding an elegant suspended lighting fixture to any area of the home is an option for more modern themed spaces as well, as the Kenroy Home Medici Brushed Steel 5 Light Chandelier will confirm. The AF Lighting Supernova Chandelier would be a natural for an expressive modern space awash in an art deco style. Those looking for a more traditional chandelier will find many in the same style as the ELK Lighting Minique Three Light Chandelier.

A floor lamp can be a comforting presence on those long November and December nights when the sun is long since set as you finish dinner. One look at the Kenroy Home Hemisphere Rust Floor Lamp will confirm there’s just as wide a variety of styles in floor lamps as there is for chandeliers. The array of hanging and pendant lighting is equally diverse and these accents can further any area’s visually distinctive character. Surely you agree this Quoizel Autumn Ridge Lantern would garner more than a few second glances as guests approach your home.

After December 21^st we can take some solace in the fact the days will start getting longer again, though most of us will still wake to night until mid-February. It’s an inevitability of the passing seasons that, although we grow accustomed to it, is never really agreeable as we have precious little daylight at our disposal. Stylish and practical lighting options help in making the long wait for spring that much more bearable.

Don’t Put Your Decorating Plans on Snooze: Wake up Your Bedroom with a Few Inexpensive Tricks

It doesn’t look terrible, but maybe a little bland. Since you just bought a new Simmons queen size mattress about a year ago and the furniture is still serviceable, redecorating your bedroom is low (very low) on your list of priorities. But it doesn’t have to be. Having a sanctuary that you can retreat to after a long, busy day is important. Making one or two inexpensive changes can update your bedroom’s decor and breathe new life into the room you spend roughly a third of your life.

A can of paint can go a long way to taking the snore out of your decor. Sure, the color is okay and was certainly trendy (eight years ago), but a fresh coat of paint with a neutral or contrasting color for the ceiling, window and baseboards will give you a new perspective.

Ditto for new bedding. Matching the color of your bed linens to the color of the walls and/or the window treatments introduces a unifying theme into your bedroom. Selecting a bedding set that also includes decorative pillows is an easy way to make the bed more inviting. A pile of pillows in different shapes with varying textures will create visual interest, making the bed more of a focal point.

If your bedroom furniture is a hodgepodge of much loved hand-me-downs, there’s an easy fix. And it doesn’t have to mean purchasing a brand new bedroom suite. By replacing a couple of mismatched pieces with matching nightstands you will harmonize the room while adding functionality, especially if you select ones with drawers and/or open or enclosed shelves.

Nightstands are also a great place to put lamps. Even if your bedroom has overhead lighting, having a bedside table lamp is handy, especially if you are in the habit of reading in bed or if you not particularly fond of being the one always stuck with having to climb out and turn off the light. A floor lamp judiciously placed in an unused corner of the room can help make it brighter.

Consider replacing the unrelated dresser and chest of drawers with an armoire. Or if an armoire is not feasible (either due to budget or space restraints), perhaps putting the chest in the closet and incorporating it into a closet organizer system would be the ideal solution.

Bare floors, even hardwood ones, can either be cold or make the room appear cold. A bedside rug made of wool might be the perfect motivator to get you up and out of bed in the mornings. Even if you do have wall-to-wall carpeting, an area rug can create instant ambiance, warming up the room with a splash of accent color.

And don’t underestimate the power of accessorizing. If the budget won’t allow for new paint or one or two new pieces of furniture, consider hanging some prints on the wall, replacing just the duvet, buying a thrifty pack of accent pillows or adding economical storage options such as baskets.

For the room that’s not just a place to sleep, these design tips will help you wake up your bedroom decor, allowing you to create an ideal environment for sleeping, staying in bed on a rainy Saturday morning or just hanging out with the kids.

I’m In the Dark Here

I realize that Al Pacino is better known for some of his other works, but my absolute, all time, watch-over-and-over-every-time-it’s-on-TV-even-though-I-own-the-video-Al-Pacino-movie is Scent of a Woman. There’s one line in the movie that makes me cry. I know it’s coming; I know he’s going to say it; I’m prepared for it—but it makes me cry anyway. Every single time. You just know that Lt. Col. Frank Slade would go back and do it all over again, this time without the mistakes, when he shouts, “I’m in the dark here.”

Well, I’m not in the dark. Not exactly. But I am in denial.

In the daytime, my living room is ideal. I have a lot of furniture in it, and over the course of several years, I have managed to arrange it so that it will accommodate all of my various activities and interests, such as watching TV, playing music (as in a musical instrument), reading and writing. During the day, these different, if you will, activity stations (a term I borrowed from my friend who is a primary school teacher), are well lit by Mother Nature. But when the sun sets, it’s an entirely different story.

My living room has no overhead lighting. I have a banker’s lamp, complete with the popular green glass shade, on my writing desk. There’s a well-placed floor lamp by a corner arm chair and a third lamp on the end table by the sofa. That’s it. As I mentioned, during the day, it’s fine; during the evening, I’m mostly in the dark, underscored by isolated pockets of light.

Every so often, I am given hints that the lighting situation in my living room is not ideal. When planning to do some mending in front of the television, for example, I often find myself getting up from the couch and going into the kitchen to thread the needle. Or when I’ve dropped something on the floor and it’s rolled somewhere, I turn on the desk lamp, floor lamp and table lamp and even the chandelier in the dining room. But the other day, as I was trying to peer into the enclosed storage area of the end table for an item I was looking for, even with all three living room lights turned on, I had to admit defeat and go and fetch the emergency flashlight in the hallway drawer. It was official; I could no longer effectively fool myself that the lighting in my living room was anywhere near adequate.

For the musician’s playing area, complete with music stand, a tree lamp (a floor lamp with more than one fixture) would be great standing in the corner, while a clip-on reading light for the music stand would make it much more functional. The room could easily house two more table lamps, while the existing floor lamp would be much more effective on the opposite side from where it is now standing. Replacing the current table lamp with a 3-way bulb style light would make the area around the end table more versatile and user-friendly. The open stretch of wall above the sofa would be ideal for two sconces. This roughly formulated plan sounds like it might actually be a viable solution—it covers all the bases, including task lighting and ambient lighting.

But something needs to be done, and soon. All I know is that when I ended up having to fetch the flashlight to look for something that was relatively out in the open, I felt pretty silly.

I am fortunate enough to have an ocean view from my apartment. Quite often, on a summer evening, I delay turning on the lights for as long as possible so that I can enjoy the glorious light shows, a.k.a. sunsets that Mother Nature puts on. Suddenly I’ll find I’m in the dark, the last traces of sunlight being reflected in the water as it fades from the sky. There is something to be said for just sitting quietly in a darkened room—it’s soothing and calming, watching the shifting shadow play created by other light sources.

Although, I have to admit, being in the dark is not so soothing or convenient when trying to fix a hem or entertain friends—something tells me they just might object to chatting and snacking with no lights on.