Wired bedside lamps, how to design switches?

[PinkCamelias]

I’d like to have wired bedside lamps installed. I already have them and they need wall switches. I am now wondering what is the best setup:

1. one dimmer switch on each side of the bed that operates both lamps simultaneously
2. one dimmer switch for each lamp on each side, so both are operated independently
3. as above, but also a master switch to turn them on and off in one go (on one side by the door, or on both sides if possible)
4. two dimmer switches on each side so both lamps can be operated from either side independently

I say dimmer switches but I suppose they might need to be a separate dimmer and toggle; I’d need to find that out.

What is most practical and makes most sense?

My bedroom - Master switch on wall as you enter the room with a double switch for the "big" light & the bedside lights. So you can have the "big light" on, on its own, the bedside lights on, on their own OR both the big lights and bedside on at the same time! Phew!

Beside switches on both sides of the bed so can be used separately.

3 is normally what you would see in a hotel, so I vote 3!

Have you checked that the lamps are compatible with dimmer switches? Not all of them are!

Thank you @PrincessPancakes and @Kwamitiki ! So option 3 seems best.
yes @Soontobe60 the lamps are compatible with dimmers.

With option 3, I think you will want them supplied from the lighting circuit. This will mean some work above the ceiling, and chasing the walls down, and redecorating afterwards.

Some people wire bedside lights from the socket circuit, which usually has cables under the floor or along the walls, but it would be more work to link that into a light switch by the door.

The switch by the door will save you walking to and fro. I think you want it as a 2-way switch, like you have at the top and bottom of the stairs, which is not the same as a master switch. You will need one for each bedside lamp. This can easily be done with modern modular switches.

Thanks for your reply @PigletJohn ! There are two 2 way switches on this wall on both sides of the bed, they operate the ceiling lamp. Underneath them, above the skirting board, there are two double sockets. The floor where the bedroom is has its on fuse board.

Based on this, I thought it would be able to add new switches without running a wire from the ceiling, that would be certainly too much work. I will obviously ask the electrician but I wanted to get an idea what to ask him in the first place.

You could power the bedside lights from the sockets, which would be easy, but not if you want a 2-way switch from the door.

There is a very slim chance you might have conduits running down the walls from the ceiling to the three existing switches, with room to insert extra cables. If your walls have plasterboard with a gap behind, they could be poked down the gap. But I think more likely you are going to need new chases and redecoration. You might decide to defer it until the room next needs redecorating.

There may be a way you could use WiFi switching, but I don't know how. Too modern for me.

I had slave/master dimmer switches designed for this purpose about 12 years ago for exactly this. The electrical wholesaler ordered/created them specifically for me. Main dimmer switch as you enter the room turns/dims both overhead chandeliers (two touch switches on one panel). Next to the bed is a panel of 3 switches - nearest is bedside lights - they go on or off. No dimming. Next to that are two touch switches that look the same as the on/off bedside lights but control the overhead chandeliers and can turn them on/off and dim them. What I would say is that at the time I was able to use standard lamps which dimmed easily. Dimmable LED lamps were trickier to find. They are practical but haven’t been totally reliable. Next time I’d forgo touch sensitive switches for just toggles as they can get confused and are easily left on a low dim by accident during cleaning.

Voice activated Alexa switches/plugs/bulbs. That's what I use all over my house for all lights.

Yes, we have dimmable smart bulbs in our bedside lights.

We have routines set up which switch them on at dusk and they can be individually adjusted as well.

@MotherofPufflings and @DinoLil what about the wiring? Is it any different (less disruption) to install these lamps?

For various reasons we couldn't use the lighting circuit when we installed them, so they were taken off the socket nearby. We just have one master switch by the bed (could have had two if we wanted) which we leave on permanently and then we control the lighting level and individual lamps with Alexa.

I imagine for you it would mean a bit less work if you can just extend up from the existing sockets and this way you wouldn't need a switch by the door. I'd recommend getting a smart bulb to play around with if you're not used to using them. They're not massively tricky, but you need to be able to link them to Alexa and work out commands that work for you etc.