Are all wall lights terrible?

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

Help me Mumsnet! I really want a pair of lamps either side of the sofa in our lounge to add symmetry and give us more options for lighting than our recessed ceiling spots give us. If we did that, the our only real option is floor standing lights, as an annoying bit of boxing in that we can’t remove means table lamps aren’t possible.

DH hates the idea. He thinks we’ll lose too much floor space. He wants us to get wall lights instead.

I am scarred by the many, many terrible wall lights I’ve seen in the houses of various older relatives and the idea repulses me.

But. marriage is a partnership and apparently I’m not ‘allowed’ to just dismiss it out of hand. And in all seriousness I do want to make sure I’ve thought about it properly.

So - are there any wall lights out there that aren’t completely gross, and that will replicate the effect of having lamps? The room has a modern unfussy look (well, as far as being full of toddler toys will allow anyway!) so I would be looking for something that fits in with that.

In my current rental the master bedroom only has wall lights. They are just plain (painted wall colour) curves just about big enough to fit a small bulb inside (it's a little fiddly to replace bulbs). They aren't in your face obvious, so I quite like them - they look soet of like this:

I had wall lights in a previous house, I bought them from Jim Lawrence. There are lots of brass ones pictured but the odd ones that aren’t and most of them come in polished steel.

We had some ceramic tiered ones that are paintable in our old house. It took me a loooong time to find ones that I liked. These worked for me as they just blended in. No statement and not really noticeable. We had the longer ones at around £60. They’re not directional though like a floor lamp may be but most wall lights for a lounge would be the wall washer type like the amalfi.

I’ve seen some that are cubes that I quite fancy, I’m also dreaming of the lights that you can control with an app.

Philips Hue.

Also I need nanoleaf aurora lights for my living room wall.

John Lewis had a few DH and I liked we went with these in the end in our extension and really like them www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-mezze-large-metal-wall-light-white/p3288840

I live in a house that only has wall lights. When replacing the previous fittings (eyesores) I found few options that weren't 'fussy'.
Best options I came across were by Astro and by a company called Dar. Astro ones are more modern and minimalist, so ended up going with those in living spaces.

Okay, this is really helpful! Some lovely ones here, and I'm particularly liking the Astro ones.

Is something like this nice or not?

www.oceanlighting.co.uk/wall-lights-c60/astro-0881-napoli-standard-1-light-wall-light-matt-nickel-p24936

Or this?

www.astrolighting.com/products/0500-connaught

They both have more of a lamp vibe.

And then I was quite taken with this:

www.oceanlighting.co.uk/wall-lights-c60/astro-7074-aria-300-1-light-wall-light-plaster-p24225

We have the ones in your third link, but that look like a cylinder. I really like them. However, I got them from a little independent lighting shop and they only cost £25 each, but are the same ones!
Just be careful of what the lights look like from the side, if they are visible from the side! Also, are you having them with the wiring fitted in, or just plugged in with the wires dangling? That will affect your choice.

I think the middle one looks a bit hotel like, sorry. I prefer the bottom ones out of your links.

We have Astro Tokyo wall lights in our dining room - it has a vaulted ceiling so unless we had a twelve foot long pendant light hanging in the centre of the room we had to have wall lights. We have them on dimmers.

Bezm they'll be wired in, so hopefully that will mean a wider choice.

Thebox hmm, I see what you mean!

Wowfudge - oh, just googled and those are nice! There were some pictures of them actually in rooms which was good. Most of them only have pictures of the actual light so you don't get the scale.

Glad you like them: we wanted chrome and opaque glass - we put dimmable LED bulbs in ours. Lots of people sell Astro products so I just googled the model and found the cheapest retailer online. Turned out to be an electrical shop on the Edgeware Road.

Probably not your sort of thing going by the suggestions above, but I have these Agate lights from Graham and Green, and I love them. It’s a shame that the picture in the link doesn’t show them switched on, because the light shining through the agate is really pretty.

www.grahamandgreen.co.uk/agate-wall-light

We got some beautiful ones from next x