Let's Get Lit

Yep, it's been a week of enlightenment for yours truly.

It all started with my quest to comfortably furnish the music room. After the disaster with the ginormous chairs, I was ready to give up. Once bitten twice shy, baby. When furniture stores started advertising great New Years sales, however, the need to have somewhere to rest my ample ass while other family members watched shows in which I had no interest resurfaced. After much deliberation, hand-wringing and anticipated regret, I purchased a new sofa. And unlike the chairs of comfortably overstuffed monstrosity, not only did I love it, but it fit the room as well. Yay.

Now the main reason I wanted a sofa in the other room was so that I could read. The music room is the one room in the house that does not have a ceiling light fixture. We had an old (Tom had it when I met him, and I think it was old then) floor lamp that we used. It did not suit the room - or me - but it served its purpose. Tom and the girls were the only ones who used that room, and they thought it was fine. When the sofa entered the picture and I became more of a fixture, though, it had to go.

My new floor lamp arrived from CSN stores yesterday. I had a little trouble putting it together and had to enlist Tom to help. He proceeded to laugh at me, because it was pretty simple. (I'll go ahead and say it for you - but so am I.) We're really pleased with the ability to direct light in several directions and I just like how the lamp looks in the room. If I hadn't made such a big deal of it, you wouldn't even know it was there - and that's just what I wanted. Something that looked like it belonged so naturally that you don't even stop to notice it.

So what to do with the old floor lamp?

Well, we moved it to the family room. I thought it would look awful. I've mentioned how awful I always thought it looked in the music room. But it didn't. It looked - good. I couldn't believe the difference a lamp made in a room -a much different feel from the overhead light - much homier. I said to Tom, I said, "How did we not know this before? It's like we're not even grown ups." I've just never paid attention to lighting. Is it light enough to see? Light enough to knit? Light enough to read? Then it's light enough.

I stand corrected. Firmly, firmly corrected.

I need more lamps. Lots more lamps. Lamps for every room. Lamps, lamps, lamps. How many lamps do I need, you ask? ALL of them.

I've got my sights set on this to replace the new old family room lamp, eventually. I had originally wanted this one for the music room, but it wouldn't have worked behind my sofa. The lowest fixture would've been obscured. Or maybe this would be a better fit for the room? I don't know. I definitely like the first one better, but then, I liked those big ass chairs, too. There's got to be a goodness of fit. Not a pressing thing. I have some time to mull it over.

But that's future dream light stuff at this point, and there is more actual new light in my life as I write this. When my SAD took a turn for the bitchy last week, Tom was forced into the realization that the lack of sunlight wasn't only going to affect me. He talked to a few folks, read a few articles, and scored a light box for me to try. A co-worker of his had used it to no avail, but different things work for different people. I'm going to give it a shot for a couple weeks - basking in its holy-mother-of-God-bright glow as I do my daily socializing important work and household related stuff on the computer. We shall see. I am optimistic, and that's something I haven't been much of for the past couple years - months - I don't know - how long has it been winter again?

I wish there were pictures accompanying this post. I took them. I downloaded them. My computer will not allow me to upload them to Blogger. I need a new computer. Yesterday. Contributions to the cause happily accepted. (I keed.)

Full disclosure: I was provided with a gift code from CSN which I used to purchase the floor lamp in exchange for the review, but this did not in any way influence the opinion I expressed.