Have you seen the Barometer light from Ikea?
I love its traditional form. I really wanted it for the basement. In fact, I wanted it so badly that I braved Ikea on Dec. 27 to buy it.
Ikea during Boxing Week. Oy vey.
We have a corner at the one end of the couch that needs a lamp. When we set up the basement, Matt put an old round wooden crate from his grandfather as an end table and stuck one of our garage sale brass lamps on top.
I love the crate, but the lamp has always bugged me. The table’s short, so the shade sits right at the arm of the couch. The metal in the rest of the basement is shiny chrome or closer to oil-rubbed bronze. The brass just doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, the Barometer doesn’t work either.
I mean, it’s pretty. The silver finish works. The height works… kind of. It’s a good task light if I was going to be sewing or reading in that corner of the couch. However, my usual activity when sitting on the couch is watching TV. We need a lamp that sheds just a bit of light so the basement isn’t lit solely by the glow of the TV.
The light that the Barometer sheds is closer to an interrogation. Just looking at this picture hurts my eyes.
We tipped down the shade, slid the light farther away from the couch, adjusted the arm. We just couldn’t make it work. No matter where we sat, we were squinting from the Barometer’s glare. 😦
So back to Ikea I went, this time to brave the returns desk. That’s nearly as much fun as shopping on Boxing Day + 1.
And it’s back to the drawing board on the basement lamp. Honestly, I think Matt had the right idea. As wonky as the low lamp looks, it gives the light we’re looking for. Now just to find something better than the brass.
Home on 129 Acres 
How about painting the base of that brass lamp? That would be inexpensive, and it would give you the finish that you like.
That’s actually what I’m thinking, but probably not this lamp. I’d like something with a slightly different shape if I’m going to paint it, I think.
I love Ikea! I was going to suggest the same thing as Stacy above, can you just spray paint the base of your short lamp if you like it better? Or maybe put a lower wattage bulb in the Ikea lamp?
I hadn’t thought of a lower wattage bulb. Unfortunately, Barometer has gone back to Ikea. I’m probably going to end up pulling out the spray paint like you suggest.
We put can lights in our hallway with 65W LED bulbs and at first I think you could have performed surgery in our hall! It was blinding. We now have 25W standard bulbs in and it is just not quite enough, I think 40W is going to be just right! Too bad you had to take Barometer back, that was a good looking lamp.
Surgery or interrogations, as we did in the basement.
Too bad, the Barometer was lovely. You could check around at thrift stores and find something to paint, or check out this post: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/blissful-blue-magic-makeovers-75791
That’s awesome! I love the super shiny finish on that lamp.
Interesting! We sell that polish in the auto parts store where I work, I never thought about using it for stuff around the house! Now, I will have to go see what I can polish!!
Try it out for us and let us know how it works!
What else were you expecting from a reading lamp?!
I didn’t really have expectations. I loved the look and I’m glad I tried it out. It just didn’t work for me in this space.