light fittings

[nowandagain]

We live in an old cottage with low ceilings and beams, it is lovely but has always been very dark. Our lounge is lit with wall lights only and there is hardly any natural light. We really want to brighten it up a bit but could do with some advice! Can anyone suggest suitable fittings? The ceilings are too low for a light fitting, we've thought about spotlights but they seem too modern and the wall lights just seem really dim, especially with energy saving bulbs. Just don't know where to start.

We have the same problem and have traipsed all over everywhere to find a solution. A lot of places have wall lights, but they are all assuming that you use them for extra light, not for your main lighting, and so they tend to go for 40w bulbs, with the result the place is still very dark. On the whole, wall lights tend to be rather old fashioned, too - you get a lot of ye olde worlde lights which look a bit crap.

One thing we're going to do in one room is to have standard lamps and table lamps which can all be switched on and off from a single wall switch, and remove the wall lights.

Oddly enough, the place that has by far the best selection of wall lights is Selfridges in Oxford Street. They have very helpful staff who will point out the lights designed to be act as full lighting for a room. We bought a couple of Ciao lights from there and they are lovely - very contemporary, but actually they go very well with the beams and brick floor etc.

BUT before you put in better lighting, you'd better check what you're going to see when you have it in! We put in the new lights and suddenly realised the room needed replastering.

If you find anywhere else that has stylish wall lights which put out a reasonable amount of lighting, please let me know!

Thanks GrendelsMum, some great suggestions. You've worried me now though about the plastering, we do have a few cracks and I bet you're right, we'll end up doing loads of work! Can't cope with the gloom much longer though so it will have to be done! Will keep looking for other ideas and let you know!