Light It Up

One more purchase for the house = one step closer to "completion".

At least, that's the way I look at it.

Thankfully, in this case, we spent very little in order to make our living room a little more functional.

Here is a panoramic-type view of the living room. As you can see, there are 2 lamps beside the chairs, but the couch is in the dark. And the walls are still pretty bare in that particular corner of the room. There really isn't room on either side of the couch to put an end table and lamp, but the couch needs some sort task-lighting.

Enter this swing-arm wall lamp we bought from Lowe's (in apparently the most wrinkled box we could find). This can be hung on the wall behind the couch for the much needed lighting on that side of the room.

We picked out a lamp with a rubbed bronze finish to coordinate with the other lamps already in the room (Lowe's does sell it in a brushed nickel finish as well).

All of the parts were included in the box... the light fixture itself plus the lampshade, harp and finial, mounting unit and screws, and metal cord cover. Everything.

Joey (loosely) followed the instructions provided and attached the mounting fixture to the wall (some drilling was involved) and then attached the lamp to that. He also had to semi-assemble the cord and plug together. The whole thing took about 20-30 minutes. The metal cord cover that goes down the wall hides the cord for a clean, polished look.

The light looks great on this wall. This close-up shot shows some of the details. I like the simple lampshade it came with, but you could always switch that out if you wanted a different look or color or texture. It's nice that the lamp can be swung from side-to-side and in-and-out depending on where the person is sitting on the couch.

Here's the same view as the 1st picture above, but with the lamp (and no Joey). Doesn't the room feel more balanced now? You can actually see the couch in the corner. And that corner looks less dull. I still have to add pictures and other items to the walls, but this is a practical start.

How much did the lamp cost? Only $40. This was great for me considering I was thinking about buying one of PotteryBarn's wall lamps for twice as much. Goes to show what a little bargain hunting can do for you!