I Love Lamp

Did you know quality lamps and lighting are ridiculously expensive???  Unless you are OK with getting a crappy $50 halogen lamp that will break in two years, you can expect to pay over $200 for a good floor lamp (maybe a little less for a table lamp).  Our new place has ceiling lights in most of the rooms, so luckily we didn’t have to worry about buying too much new lighting. But our livingroom does not have any installed light fixtures and gets very dark at night (partially my fault since I chose a dark color for the walls).  So we desperately needed a couple new light sources.  With a limited budget and all of the furniture we have yet to buy; dropping a few hundred dollars on an item that you can’t sit on, eat on, or store things in, didn’t sound very appealing.  We scoured various sites and stores for options.  Most were affordable yet ugly and flimsy, or they were way out of our price range.

Thankfully we have great friends who have experience bargain hunting for housewares.  A couple we know (many of you know them and I’ve mentioned Judy on the site before), who also happen to be our neighbors, told us all about the wonders of Craigslist and the Tanger Outlets.  Our first great find came from the West Elm section of the Pottery Barn Outlet at Tanger.

I fell in love with this lamp the moment I saw it.  Originally priced at $149, we got this lamp for a mere $70!

Not only was it affordable, but it is exactly the style I wanted.  Its sculptural and modern, but still fits in perfectly with our more classic, old world furniture.

We found our most needed item, a floor lamp, on Craigslist.  I had always been afraid to trust Craigslist, but our friends told us a few tips on how to filter through all of the crap.  Mainly, search by brand name and limit your search results to title only.  You also have to search EVERY DAY and act fast when you see something good.  The good stuff tends to get snatched up really fast.  So one lazy friday night, after a couple weeks of daily searching, Joe came across a listing for a Restoration Hardware lamp in the Upper East Side.  This woman was moving to an apartment that has recessed lighting throughout the unit and no longer had need for a floor lamp.  She said we needed to come by that same night, so spur of the moment we jumped into the car and drove to her Manhattan luxury condo.  The lamp was in great condition!  She charged us $100 for both the lamp and shade. Normally it retails at $235 WITHOUT the shade.

While its not as sculptural or stylish as our other lamp, it does fit in perfectly with our other classic, old world elements.  Its really sturdily built and has a nice, solid, heavy base.

Here’s what they both look like in our livingroom:

We still don't have a table for this lamp, so it sits on the floor. Eventually I plan to get a console table for the entry that can be a home for the lamp.

Please ignore the little pieces of cardboard under the couch legs. I still need to buy felt pads to prevent it from scratching our floor.