Light This Corner!
I love our living room. It has plenty of natural light and high, coved ceilings. There is no hardwired overhead light, but the switch near the front door controls an outlet and I've plugged three lamps into it. Two of the lamps are behind the couch and the third is to the right of the entertainment center. (View lamp locations here.) During the evening, the room isn't brightly lit but it's cozy. The couch is the perfect place to curl up with a book.Mike is in law school, so he spends a lot of time reading. The reading usually takes place in his red recliner. In fact, he spends so much time in that chair that the cushion has a faint ass-print. It's a great location. He can watch TV, browse the internet, study, and still be in the heart of the house. Unfortunately, the spot is not well lit. He usually reads by the light of the nearby dining room chandelier. I'd like to find a better lighting solution.
The tricky part about lighting the area is that there are no nearby outlets. The closest outlet is on the wall with the entertainment center. Whatever lighting device I use, I'll have to snake a cord along the mantel, down the wall, around the corner, and along the baseboard to the outlet. Darn cords!
As far as lighting options, I've considered a hanging lamp, a swing arm lamp (fastened to the mantle), paired candlestick lamps on the mantel, and paired sconce lamps on the wall above the mantel. I'm afraid that the hanging lamp will upset the symmetry of the room and I don't want to put holes in the fantastic ceiling. A swing arm lamp might also look unbalanced (although I could put lamps on both sides). I'm leaning toward sconces or mantel lamps. The downside to sconces is that I'd have to punch holes in the wall to mount the sconces and the cords would be quite visible.
Please share your recommendation or experience with a similar situation. I've used ridgid cord covers to hide cords, but are their better options for securing/hiding cords? Is there some lighting solution I haven't thought of? (Moving the chair or Mike is not an option.) Leave a comment!
posted by Kasmira at 17.12.05
5 Comments:
We have wall sconces above the mantle but they really don't produce enough light to read by. Could you install an outlet in the floor, perhaps back by the side of the fireplace? Then a floor lamp could sit just behind the chair or a small table lamp beside it.
I guess you could always hide the cord under the rug too ;-)
I did neglect to mention using a floor lamp. The space is a bit too tight for a floor lamp. There is no room between the chair and the fireplace. I can't place a lamp behind the chair because it reclines.
I COULD put the lamp next to the side table or even find a lamp/table combo. I was afraid the pathway to the door would get to crowded with a lamp and table there. I'm going to try moving the existing floor lamp next to the side table and see how that goes.
Thanks for gettig me thinking!
When I redid my kitchen I had built-in fixtures installed. It was transformative and you don't even notice them. Ditto for the living room, where the dimmer switch is more in use. My sun room with less ceiling space got attractive track lighting, which is only slightly more noticeable and still does the trick. I think lamps are visually intrusive and don't light as well as built-ins, either. My 2 cents.
I was going to mention track lighting too. There are so many styles (think IKEA) that I am sure you could find one to your liking.
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