journal entry:
Lamps.
Nothing creates coziness and warmth quite like the right lamp and the right degree of light. Floor lamps provide flexibility because they can go anywhere . . . next to anything, just as long as you can find a plug. I have found several wonderful lamps during the past year. The floor lamp above came from Deseret Industries and was $5. It is in perfect condition and adjusts in height while the light itself can be adjusted high and low and can be directed right onto the pages of a book.
Two lamps in this photograph were thrifted. The floor lamp is a “small” lamp with a heavy base. By small I mean that it is about five and one half feet tall while most floor lamps are about six feet tall. It is ornate and “distressed” but not overly so and has a wonderful shade which is made of heavily textured fabric. The color of the shade gives the light an amber color. Amber light is a cozy, warm light. The lamp is next to a kitchen bench but it has also been in the bedroom. One of my self-imposed rules during my equally self-imposed thrifting adventure was that things needed to be flexible between rooms in my house. That is because I like to change things around.
The small lamp on the kitchen counter was previously described in the post titled Flea Market Style: Kitchen. It is a magical lamp which is activated by the slightest touch of the finger and provides three degrees of ambient light. I consider both lamps to be this thrifter’s good fortune.
This thrifted lamp was also just $5. It is very interesting and unusual and has a beautiful fabric lamp shade. The shade is a cream color and so, it too gives off a warm, amber light. I have also bought lamp bases without shades. The shades can be added later if the lamp itself is wonderful.
I do know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I like . . . and what others like may be worlds apart but we each live in our own world, don’t we? Our world should feel good to us.
Oh. I love this lamp.
Above is a regular height floor lamp in perfect condition. It’s base has a patina-crackle quality to it and the lamp shade is a rich and thick fabric with plenty of texture and just the right colors for it’s place in the room. This lamp was at the back of a group of about ten lamps and had I not moved things around, I would have missed it. It was one of my first thrifted pieces and it helped to establish how other things in the room might eventually look. The colors in the lamp shade and the sofa and chair it accents are nice together. It is a perfect reading lamp and will take a three-way bulb.
Things are looking bright.
So. Rather than just one lamp on the large table between the sofa and the chair, I have three. They are three different heights and give off the same kind of warmth as the other lamps with shades of a similar color, texture and style. The lamps’ bases are decorative but not fussy and they are in perfect condition. The two tallest lamps were from Deseret Industries and were $3 each. The third was from Saver’s and was less than that.
I can use one lamp for an accent or all three for serious light.
I can mix them and match them throughout the house.
I do love lamps and light.
“Make the best use of what is in your power and take the rest as it happens.”
-Epictetus-
Good idea!