LEDs & tourist tip for London

The humble incandescent light bulb started to get phased out in 2009, and ours hadn't quite given up the ghost until now. We had a bit of a struggle finding LED replacements that worked with the dimmers. The first pair to arrive wouldn't dim at all, and cast a cold blue tinted light across the kitchen. We replaced them with some Philips EcoClassics, which happily dim and have a warmer yellow glow. They also have the added side effect of making our kitchen ceiling look like a light show (as per above photo). These bulbs last for 2,000 hours so we'll be with them for a while. They're economical too, currently around £1.99 on Amazon and they use 80% less energy than our original incandescent bulbs. 

On a side note - went up to Duck & Waffle in Heron Tower for an early dinner. Missed the sunset but had the most breathtaking view of London regardless. This shot is from the toilet so you can imagine how spectacular it is walking around the space. The restaurant is open 24 hours and there's lots to try on the menu. If you live in London and you haven't been yet, get a date in asap. If you're coming to London, make a booking and enjoy at least one meal or a cocktail up here. We took the girls up but check what time kids are welcome, usually it's OK before 7pm in most places. 

Bedside reading lamp

Bedside lighting: pretty boring topic. Unless, like me, you have mismatching bedside lamps due to various previous accidents involving clumsy cleaners. Also there's something irritating about the snakes of cables getting caught up around the bed.

So when the above lamps popped up as a featured design buy on fab.com I sent the link to Rob and suggested they might be great for our refurbished bedroom. He agreed but we didn't buy them immediately. They sold out and the Spanish manufacturer Dalainor didn't return my emails. I trawled t'internet looking for something similar, to no avail. Yesterday, I decided to phone the manufacturer and was delighted to find they cost €40 each, plus €40 for delivery to the UK: this is £104 all up - which is about £40 cheaper than we'd have got them from fab.com - result!

Postscript

They arrived yesterday - 3 working days after I did the bank transfer! Thank you Dalainor!

You light up my life

Remember when the extension was being built, and we discovered that the architect had forgotten to add any lights to the drawings? Well we thought we'd get by with some well placed uplighters and lamps. Turns out that a large body of glass and the pitch darkness of night will swallow up light. We considered getting an oversized Anglepoise lamp to help matters when we're eating dinner - having the halogens on isn't the best solution, and neither is peering into dimly lit plates. We tried stategically placed candles (ok, but not ideal when the table is covered from end to end with food and booze), and finally agreed on that Livingetc featured design staple, the Arco floor light.



I've been to the Castiglioni studio in Milan so I have a huge appreciation for the designer and his influence. Sadly, I don't have £1,350 to buy a modern day reproduction of his iconic light. Obviously, if I did I would've definitely shelled out over at Heal's but as it happens I found the best homage to the original on eBay via Contemporary Furniture Clearance. You can bid from £159 or buy one on the spot for £169 - it arrived with us two working days after I paid (via courier) and an efficient chap called to say he'd left it on the door step. The marble base weighs 64kgs so no-one was going to nick it - we had to unpack it in order to stick a wooden pole through the iconic hole just to get it inside.



Once assembled the lamp looked right at home - these photos don't do it justice, but the height is perfect in our extension, and the quality of the finish is unbelievably convincing. I've seen terrible silver effect shades, bad arcs and shoddy "marble" in other copies but this, thankfully, was the best £159 we've spent in a while. It even came with handling gloves so you don't put finger prints all over the brushed aluminium when you assemble it.



The marble base is an excellent place to leave the laptop when we're not using it (I'm not keen on leaving the laptop on the table as the heat that thing puts out is intense) and as a happy coincidence, the shape and patterns of the lamp shade compliments our uplighters.



(Apologies for the cheesy title but I'm fond of word play and song lyrics. I should point out that this is in reference to the Debby Boone version and not Westlife/Whitney Houston songs of the same name.)

You light up my life

One of my favourite birthday presents turned out to be a light. (Thank you Malcolm & Andrew!) Yup, I am digging something really practical. I may've mentioned I'm old mature now. This light has 256 possible colour options, and it can either phase through each one, like a slow-mo disco enhancement, or you can choose the light to match your mood. You need a bit of white wall for it to shine onto and a power socket and bam! Instant party starter. No, not really, but the kids were impressed for all of ten minutes.

I have to admit, it really does make the room warmer (well, with that expanse of glass and white it wouldn't take much).

The light is called a Philips mini LED and is available here for £69.95. Progress on hanging the rest of our art is at a standstill but I'm pretty sure having more up will make it seem warmer still...

Kitchen lights

I think Rob enjoys stressing me out. He says extraordinary things and then waits for a reaction. He's had plenty of fodder in this renovation project to turn me into a hysterical banshee but I've learnt that he's prone to exaggeration and is fond of creating drama where there isn't one. Case in point: he told me the lamp shades we'd chosen as pendant lights were too big. He said even if they were hung a little higher than they should be, they looked wrong for the space. I pointed out that they cost less than £120 so were a temporary solution until we could find something we really liked.

When I saw the pendant lights in real life, I have to admit, I couldn't see what the problem was - they look absolutely in proportion to the space to me. In fact, they look better than I thought they would. I definitely don't feel motivated to replace them just yet. Here they are in a photo, let me know if you think they look too big...

Wall uplighters

These are some splendid crystal uplighters from Alfies Antiques Market. I think they're from the 1960s or 1970s. Unfortunately, neither of them were particularly cheap. Also, as the rest of the house is so "new" would having two sole retro uplighters seem weird? Would we then regret having halogens everywhere? Possibly.

So I guess it's kind of fortuitous that a few weeks ago I was emailed a press release about a new online boutique interiors 'marketplace' called Bouf. Whilst perusing the site I discovered these quirky uplighters made from playing marbles. You could get them in various sizes and could specify the kind of marble used. Rob wasn't keen to buy sight unseen but Alex from Bouf sorted out a visit to the designer's studio in North London and viola, we're in business. We ordered two large ones (300mm diameter) in clear 'soap bubble' marbles and they're ready for collection tomorrow (£300 for both). I haven't seen them in real life so am trusting Rob's judgement on this. Fingers crossed they look as good on the wall as they do in these photos...

Pendant lights

I'm not a massive fan of halogen lights, which is a tad ironic given that this is how most of the house will be lit. However, we're going to have a couple of pendant lights over the kitchen sink to make the space less clinical (all that white!) and provide a bit of warm light. It's a bit of a stretch finding a pendant light that doesn't scream "Ikea!" when our budget is so compromised, our thinking was to find something that will do for now that we can update when we're a bit more flush (uh, 2012?).

There are some really gorgeous retro lights from the 1960s at Alfies Antiques Market but very few of them are under £500 each. We were thinking something in the region of £200 for both would be an acceptable sum, but this is a price point that sadly means we'd be stuck with Ikea/Woolworths/Argos. Then we popped into OneDeko in Spitalfields and found a simple, clear pendant light that looked like a future classic. It was £75. A few days later I went to order two of them online but decided to do a quick search to see if they were cheaper anywhere else. And they were, everywhere that stocked them was cheaper than £75. In the end, I got the "Josephine Acrylic Pendant light" from Exit Interiors for £59 each, plus £5 for delivery. £123 all up, which is pretty good going. Let's hope they look like future classics hanging over our kitchen sink...

Verner Panton light

This light is either a reproduction of the Verner Panton version, or a very good copy. Since it was at the ICFF I'm going to guess it was a reproduction, but you never know. I'm sure someone with a better eye for Verner Panton originals can correct me.

My ex's parents had this lamp hanging in their 1970s house and I've always lusted after it. Even after we broke up I mentioned that if they ever wanted to sell it to let me know. Years later when I heard his parents were separating and selling the family home my second reaction (after "Are you OK?", natch) was 'Are they selling that really cool 60s hanging lamp?'

Apparently they hated it because it hung in an alcove near the door and constantly got tangled up whenever the wind blew. And a couple of the delicate strands had snapped over the years. I guess they must've been nostalgic because they hung onto it and I'm pleased to say that after some time apart they finally got back together. I must find out if this lamp is hanging in their new house...

Retro light shades

More on the old skool tip. Here are some lights from Salone - I know, I know… getting to schlep around a massive furniture fair when in the midst of a house renovation is just a tad convenient - that reminded me of the plastic 1970s versions. These are made from super fine strips of wood though, so of course they have much better 'green' credentials. Not sure which design I like the best of the red/green ones at the back, and would I get sick of looking at it month in, month out? There will be very few opportunities for a pendant light in our house. Currently in fact I think there's only one - over the kitchen sink. The three in the foreground remind me of home-made Christmas card lanterns. They're made by a company based in Valencia called Luzifer Spain.

The lights below are by Tom Dixon and look super cool. They're very similar to a lampshade from the 60s that a friend of mine bought. When I look at these I think of Jane Fonda in Barbarella, the mid century house in a Clockwork Orange and my shiny new set of petanque balls...