Never has this been a better time in the history of the world for photophiles to create the light setup of their dreams.
If I were a newbie getting into lamps, here is what I would do
buy handheld lamps on Amazon that I am genuinely fond of, and are inexpensive, or shop lamps at Home depot, and just start playing around with them.
There are many considerations around how you actually use the lamps. What you need the lamp shining on, how it reflects on objects around you, whether it is on a desk or a drawer or on the floor, whether you have to mount it to a wall or a ceiling, what kinds of time of day you are using that lamp and for what activities.
Perhaps you want the lamp near a mirror, or near a window, but only if the window has a certain kind of drapey curtain. Perhaps you know you do not want to bother with mounting and want only table and floor lamps. Perhaps you are the opposite and you know that your floor space is precious and you only want lamps you can mount.
You want to also consider how you will turn your lamp on and off. Will it be attached to a light switch? Will it have its own button? Will it be plugged into an extension cord and then the extension cord has its own light switch? Will it be voice activated? Will it be turned on and off with an app?
We are in the golden age of electronic components. In Hannibal, the quote “this is my design” comes up often in the context of, murder. In your house, “this is my design” can come up in the context of your lampy preferences.
You can also consider things like art. Do you want any art illuminated? Do you otherwise have things you just need to see, such as your kitchen counters, such that you may want under cabinet lighting?
These are useful things to think about because you may think you need “more light in the kitchen” but you actually quite like some mood lighting for vibey dinners, and you may actually want “functional” lighting for the surfaces you are cooking on. Therefore there are a lot of lighting “solutions” that will not actually make you happy. Additionally, how easy to turn a lamp on and off and if you naturally get up and move to where you would be turning it on and off when you want to is also more important than you may think.
This is why playing with lamps before investing too heavily to get used to how you yourself use them is a good idea. If you hang up a whole lamp and drill holes in your walls before understanding if you actually need a lamp there, you may discourage yourself from lamp play in the future.
start learning about what can be custom, and what can be done with natural light
You want to interact with two polar opposites. What can actually benefit from no lamp at all? Perhaps you need to rearrange some furniture to make better use of windows. Perhaps you hate your shades or your curtains, and want something better there. Maybe you want automatic dark blinds that work on a timer, such that when you wake up your blinds open and there is a lot of natural light, and when you are going to sleep you want the blinds down.
Perhaps your television or your projector is often the main lamp in your living room, and you realize you do not want any lamps on that entire wall because there is already enough.
Additionally on the other end, you can get entire custom components, custom lampshades, custom designs, color changing lightbulbs, voice activation…for relatively cheap or actually cheap. If you had a magic lamp fairy come and do stuff for you, what would you want done? There is a decent chance you can actually get that.
To be continued…