A Tiny Guide to GREAT Lamps
28 lovely ways to get the light RIGHT. Plus, Gae Aulenti and an ode to the Tiny Kitchen Lamp (Billy Cotton knew; Lily + David did not).
Hi everyone, I checked in with some of our friends on the ground in Minnesota and, if you’re keen to help in any big/small ways, this site offers many extraordinary organizations supporting people + families everyday where it counts. Also: Someone I love reminded me recently that tyranny’s ultimate intent is to divide us and make us fear one another. It’s exactly why this is such valuable advice right now—simply seeing more people in our own communities as friends, and fostering those loving connections however/whenever we can. Please stay safe out there. ❤️
Despite being a bit of a lamp-collecting psycho, every time I sat down over the past few weeks to finish writing today’s story, I sort of choked. In reflection, I don’t think it’s that surprising. Lamps are central to almost everything we do at home or work. And GREAT lamps, in addition to being collectible, historic, even iconic are an absolute secret weapon for making any room or corner instantly atmospheric.
I LOVE a good lamp. And I’ve been through enough (very) bad ones at this stage of the game to know a great one when I see it. Despite having copious amounts of natural light in our Brooklyn apartment, over the years I’ve managed to accumulate an eclectic cast of characters in The Lamp Department. At last count—i.e., yesterday—our 750sf space is home to 23 lamps, 13 of them vintage (I’ll do my best to patch a Reel together about them tomorrow 🤡). 23 GREAT lamps I could not have discovered had it not been for the 20+ bad lamps that preceded them. Because, no matter how beautiful or fancy a light may be, when it doesn’t hit right, there’s absolutely no way around it—it’s OUT.
Price is irrelevant: Left, the “expensive” white lamp someone sent me as a gift that I kept for years because I loved the shape but never turned on because the light was so weird (I eventually gave it away). On the right, a $10 ceramic lamp I thrifted that is always rich in the Good Vibes.
Drilling it down: Good lamps make everything around them more beautiful, interesting, and inviting. And Bad lamps basically do the opposite, depleting everything in their midst, including your energy + mood. Essentially, when it comes to lamps, what you see is not always what you get, as in:
🚫 The shape is beautiful, but the proportions are off.
🚫 The base is great, but the shade feels cheap.
🚫 The lamp itself is perfect, but the light it throws is disquieting.
As anyone who’s spent the night in an ill-lit hotel room can attest—good light does not discriminate. Because in many cases, a $10 cheapie light can sometimes cast a way cozier/more luxurious glow than its $700 counterpart. And testing each one out the way you would a coveted pair of jeans is really the only way to go.
When I began my Great Lamp research, the first thing I did was go back to one of my favorite homes ever—the Milan apartment of the late Italian architect/designer/all-around genius Gae Aulenti. In addition to her work designing some of the most magnificent architectural landmarks around the world, her home was/is a study in how a room comes together over time with personal collected treasures, including many lamps of her own design layered with art, books, textiles, ephemera, etc.
[Side note worth sharing: I asked Sami Reiss a true vintage design connoisseur AND fellow Aulenti super fan a while back why he thought Aulenti was so amazing, too, and this is what he said:
“Aulenti's work can be so powerful that it's astounding. The width and space in her pieces, like her Orsay sofa or her Patroclo and Alcinoo lamps are something else. These are architectural, bludgeoning forms, as imposing as a skyscraper. The best ones are all power and right angles, or correct curves and confidence. Minimalism but not really. Effectiveness? Power...power for sure.” ]
Endless Room + Lamp Envy—Gae Aulenti’s apartment in Milan, aka: my Favorite apartment In the World. Below, Aulenti with a few of her lamp designs.
“Light is impressionism.”—Gae Aulenti
Above left, a vintage postcard of a 1969 lamp designed by Gae Aulenti I found on eBay, and right, Aulenti’s iconic Pipistrello, aka: the vintage lamp I want most.
Because I’m hopeless to write any story in a straight line, I started poking around for other designers at home with their lamps, too—like Isamu Noguchi’s Long Island City studio (Big Light/Small Space:) and Eileen Gray’s Paris apartment. They always seem like lamps they really loved/had forever, perhaps just moving them around to different spots as their homes/everyday routines shifted and evolved over time.
And that’s really the POINT. Finding a lamp you love that easily adapts to your mood or need for more/less energy at different moments throughout the day. In dark times (this past week in particular) a favorite lamp can be a lodestar of comfort—something to make you feel grounded + safe when your body craves it. And for my fellow small-space dwellers, we know that very good lights help us to create zones in the absence of an extra room or to make a sliver of space (like the below corner designed by Nicola Harding) feel simultaneously transporting and inviting.
In addition to our edited list of the 30’ish fantastic lamps here, I hope today’s story reminds us all that Great Lamps won’t ever be disposable. When we find the right ones, it’s a sustainable choice that grows with us, sharing warmth in our homes/lives when + where we need it the most. So, as you go about your own future lamp hunting, keep this tiny cheat-sheet in mind…
Great Lamps are collectible. Whether they are inexpensive, like this vintage IKEA lamp likely was when it was new, spotted in The Strategist’s Classifieds, OR if it’s an investment like an Akari or my Artemide Tolomeo mini. Either way, when chosen with care, a Great Lamp will adapt + travel with you wherever you go.
Great Lamps are personal. What is personal + interesting is in the eye of the beholder, but what I mean here is a lamp that’s got something. Some feature or characteristic that makes it lovely and appealing and gets what you’re trying to say in your space w/out words. Vintage lamps rank high in this section for their rarity/originality (below left, a vintage shop in Rome my friend Elettra texted me recently), but they can also be super minimal, like this no-name tiny lamp (right) I thrifted for $3 but happens to look expensive. Bottom line: A Great Lamp does half the work in making everything around it more interesting, too.
Great Lamps are less about size, more about statement. When I first saw the below bedroom designed by COMMUNE, I noticed the tiny red sconce before anything else (btw, it’s by RBW and below, I shared a vintage alternative). I don’t really know how, but its exquisite smallness somehow anchors the entire space and proves how the right tiny beautiful things can make an outsized impact. In a single move, a Great Lamp can flip an awkward spot or mopey vibe into something next level. It gets us out of a rut. It focuses our attention. It revives us. And it allows us to see what’s beautiful about our space even when it’s less than perfect. Perfect sucks!
A Great lamp gets us out of a rut. It focuses our attention. It revives us. And allows us to see what’s beautiful about our space even when it’s less than perfect. Perfect sucks!
Okay, okay, I hope you love what we found here…it’s time to get into it! ⬇️ xxCb
“Nobody needs to see my face in this much detail.”
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