Ann Kale, a New York lighting designer, offers solutions to some common lighting problems.
1. One partner's bedside lamp keeps the other partner up.Blame the translucent white linen or parchment shade. It provides soft illumination for the entire bedroom - ideal for daytime, but troublesome at night. An opaque shade sheds light on the book but releases none through the sides. For daytime, however, the room may also need sconces or a torchier.
2. Bulbs in hard-to-reach places keep burning out.
Switch to higher-wattage bulbs, if the fixture can safely accept them, and dim very slightly. This requires the simple installation of a rheostat, or dimmer. "If you dim the light by just 10 percent you double the bulb life," Kale said. "Dim it 20 percent, and you triple the bulb life. It may be years before you have to change it."
This trick also works with halogen, but only if you coddle it slightly. Once every week or so, raise the dimmer to its highest level for one minute. This allows tiny bits of tungsten that have broken off the filament to reattach.
3. After reading for several hours, you get a headache.
There's probably too much contrast between the task light, which is focused on the page, and the surrounding room. Turn up the ambient lighting, and rest your book on a light-colored surface, perhaps a cream-colored blotter.
4. A room needs a little romance.
Evoke candlelight by using a dimmer to make the lighting yel-lower. To preserve the brightness level, increase the wattage of the light bulbs, then dim to the level you need.