Guide - Lunares Blog

Which side should a desk lamp stand on? The short answer: opposite your writing hand. A right-handed person wants the light mainly from the left, a left-handed person from the right, so the hand does not cast a shadow over what you are writing. But the side is only the starting point – height, distance, brightness and the presence of other light in the room matter just as much. This guide explains the rule, why it works and how to set a lamp up so writing and screen work stay comfortable.

An LED strip looks unassuming – a flexible tape with a row of diodes – yet it is one of the most versatile ways to bring light into a home: it lights a kitchen worktop, hides inside a suspended ceiling, outlines a bathroom mirror and illuminates a patio. The catch is that buying one means settling several things at once: voltage, brightness, colour, ingress protection and power-supply rating. Get it wrong and you end up with a strip that glows too weakly, dims out at the far end, or peels off a warm cabinet after a month. In this guide we walk through the entire choice and installation, step by step – so you buy once and buy right.

Burning eyes two chapters into a novel, squinting at small print, a headache after an evening of reading – the culprit is rarely tiredness. More often it’s a lamp standing too far away or aimed at the wrong spot. Here’s what colour and brightness actually help you read, how to position a lamp by the bed or an armchair, and when a small clip-on light beats buying another lamp.

Clean a desk lamp safely by disconnecting power, removing dry dust first and matching the cleaner to the material. This protects the shade, joints, LED lens and touch controls.

The living room is the hardest room in the house to light, because it’s the only one that does everything at once: this is where you read and watch films, host guests and doze on the sofa. One ceiling lamp – however beautiful – won’t handle all those roles; at full power it makes a “waiting room”, dimmed down it leaves dark corners. The solution designers use is layers of light: general, task and mood, each on its own switch. In this guide we build a complete plan out of them – from the ceiling lights, through the floor lamp by the sofa, to the light behind the TV – with concrete numbers, lamp by lamp.

An LED illuminated mirror may light the face evenly, provide a soft night light or merely draw a decorative halo on the wall. These effects are not interchangeable. Diode position, colour rendering, brightness, moisture protection and the power connection all matter. This guide explains how to choose a bathroom mirror with lights, when a demister is useful and which features genuinely help with shaving and make-up.

A new lampshade is the cheapest makeover a lamp can get: the base and the wiring stay, yet the lamp changes character completely – from office-grade to cosy, from grandma’s parlour to modern. The trouble is that a shade bought by eye tends to droop like an oversized hat or expose the socket like trousers that are too short. In this guide we explain how to choose a lampshade: which size proportions always work, how a cone differs from a cylinder and the empire form, how the material – fabric, linen, paper, glass or wickerwork – transforms the light, and how to check the fitting so the new shade actually fits your lamp.

A metal lamp can look brand new for decades – or lose its finish after one “thorough” cleaning. The difference almost never lies in diligence, but in knowledge: matte black, brass, copper and chrome are four completely different finishes, and most home remedies that work on one will ruin the others. In this guide we go through each of them: how to recognise what you’re dealing with, what to clean with safely, when (and whether at all) to polish, what waxing does – and what you should never do to a metal lamp.

Garden lanterns can mark a safe route, frame a formal entrance and give a property character after dark. Height and the number of arms alone do not guarantee a good result. Beam distribution, weather resistance, a suitable foundation and spacing that guides the eye without creating a row of glaring points all matter. This guide explains when to choose a classic park lantern, when a low bollard works better and how to plan fittings from 1 to 2.5 metres high.