Did you know that  Nearly Half of Americans Don’t Think Their Significant Other Will Last as Long as an LED Light Bulb - so your most enduring long-term relationship might be with an LED!(wakefield research-source)

We have been working day and night to remodel our Family Room, and it is nothing short of an undertaking. My desire to make sure the room is correctly coordinated and visually appealing as well as very livable I visited IKEA.  I wanted to make certain that our updates were also earth friendly and did not use too much energy.  One update that determines energy usage in a family room is lighting.  I thought that I should turn to IKEA for a way to stay green and save money while making simple changes in our room.  IKEA is such a Green store, and one of my Favorites for shopping.  IKEA offers a shopping experience unparalleled as it mixes good traditional items with a fresh spin, and in many cases earth friendly.

THE LED DIFFERENCE

I had begun investigating the new LED lights that seem to be popping up everywhere, but LED LIGHTS seem to have some pretty high price tags, so I was worried that my choices would be very limited.  I was also worried that the bulbs would be too expensive and not really make a large enough difference in our electric bill to make up the difference, but what I found at IKEA was an entirely different situation and I want to share it with you because if you are renovating any room, lighting is a must!  There are a key elements of lighting fixture shopping I want to detail for you: the fixture, the bulbs, and the lamp shades. You will be able to find all the lighting and bulbs you need at IKEA, saving you time and money as it becomes one stop shopping!  If you are hungry, as I was after I shopped, I stopped in the Cafe and at a Greek Salad! Don’t worry about the kids, Smaland will take care of them for you up to one hour while you shop, a built in sitter is always nice!

IKEA offers LED LIGHTS at very FAIR prices and the bulbs that create this light are very affordable.  In fact, purchasing the bulbs at IKEA will allow you to save on your energy bill and the nicest part is that the bulbs are interchangeable into other fixtures you already own!  You really will find that you have 2 different ways of saving with LED LIGHTS, both in the fixtures themselves by updating or in the bulbs as you can use them in existing lighting just to cut energy costs! IKEA is a frugal consumer’s paradise! What’s better is that you are never sacrificing style in order to be earth friendly and save energy.  In fact, updating your fixtures, or even just the bulbs is on of the most inexpensive and eye pleasing things you can do for a room and in return receive benefits such as a cost savings in your electric bill.  This is the key principle I preach about all the time, spending while earning a bit back, you are earning more of your money back in your pocket, by not using as much electricity when you use LED Bulbs and IKEA is key to helping you save the GREEN while being Green!

HERE IS A LITTLE BIT ABOUT BULBS & WHY LED LIGHTING WILL SAVE YOU MONEY

If you are not a light bulb expert, you don’t have to be, there are:

Incandescent bulbs: these are the old light bulbs that actually looked like light bulbs,

CFL’s – these are those newer ‘ugly’ looking spiral ones

Halogen Bulbs- these are usually small, and very bright, but they burn out more frequently.

LED – there are a wide range of LED bulbs available.  LED lighting can last nearly 20 years~

ITEMS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LED LIGHTS & ABOUT IKEA

IKEA boasts a LARGE selection of LED bulbs.  You can simply change your current bulbs from incandescent bulbs to LED and you do not have to change the lamp base! A very frugal way to save.  LED lighting is one of the best-kept secrets in home furnishing sustainability!
-If one million people changed one bulb each into LED, this would in terms of CO2 emissions correspond to taking almost 6,700 cars off the road, or planting 17 million trees per year.

-LED bulbs can last nearly 20 years. That’s about 20 times longer than a typical incandescent, 10 times longer than a typical halogen and twice as long as a typical CFL.

-LED bulbs use substantially less power than incandescents or CFLs. Replacing existing lighting with LEDs can save between 50% and 90% of lighting energy costs.

-LEDs can be used almost anywhere – in any room in the house or in any business. LED replacements are already available for many bulb types and can fit virtually all of your existing lamps

The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated that an increased adoption of LEDs over the next 15 years would:

~~Reduce electricity demands from lighting by 62 percent

~~Prevent 258 million metric tons of carbon emissions

~~Eliminate the need for 133 new power plants

In a nutshell, LED Bulbs are leading the way in energy efficiency and keeping our earth Green and Sustainable.

LAMP FIXTURES

I have spent so much time researching how big or small the lamp fixture should be on a table, in a room, next to a couch, next to a chair and you know what I have figured out?  The decision is all up to you because there is no right or wrong answer, it is whatever you want the room to look like. Yes, things may look awkward in rooms, but that is all a matter of personal taste! I was there to find appropriate table lamps and a floor lamp and I did succeed.

My goal was to match my granite table tops that were arriving.  The tables are a mesh of Green and Brown and a faint Gray.  I did not want to go contemporary as the style of the room is traditional, but I definitely needed the height on the tables because my couches are with big bulky pillows.  If I placed a small lamp on an end table, my greatest fear was it would be swallowed and not noticed.  I chose a lamp called the ROXMO and it is 28″.  I chose the size of this lamp to adequately compliment the bulkiness of the coach cushions and to pull out the colors on the table.  Jennifer Stockdale of Ikea Pittsburgh, suggested the base would be a great way to pull the colors out of the granite tabletops and with her keen eye for design, I have to say I much agree after looking at the pieces separately and then together!  The lamp itself is glass bubbles and complimented by an oval cream colored lamp shade.  The decision to maintain the lamp shade color was not done without effort as we took into consideration wall color, furniture color, carpet color and woodwork coloration’s in the room.  We decided to leave it neutral as it will pull color from the wall hanging as well as woodwork, it will not over power but of course it will accent.  The LED  Bulb that I am placing in the lamp will cost me a total of $1.02  to run per year based on 3 hours a day usage!

There were endless amount of table lamps to choose from but this one addressed my needs on every level from color to size.

THE RIGHT LAMP SHADE

If you have ever seen a lamp shade on a lamp that is just not quite right, you immediately know what I am talking about before I start.  Often lamp shades don’t look right with the bases, if you are choosing contemporary, placing a tightly pleated lamp shade on this lamp may make it look like it can’t quite decide what it wants to be, contemporary or traditional.  It is a hard choice, but if you work from the suggested lamp shades and then move into your own, you should get a good sense for what is a match and what is not!  Again there is no right or wrong and beauty will be in the eye of the beholder, just remember, that these are accent pieces and can help pull a room together, so really look at what is being offered and try to see if a base is thin, how wide a shade should be, what color is the base, what style is the base?

IKEA has a plethora of choices, and no lamp has to be with any particular base, you decide what width and color look best and off you go. You can see here that Jennifer and I were mixing and matching but in the end, the one that was already assembled won me over as well as Jennifer.   I did follow the rules that I know, that a round base, looks best with a round shade and a square base with a square shade, but changing things up is ok, rules are just meant to be guidelines, in the end you have to be happy with your creation and that is why IKEA has such a large selection of lamp bases and tops so you can Write Your Own Rules!  I surely did not follow protocol about the height of the lamp shade making up 1/3 of the lamp total lamp size

Things to remember when you are shopping for lamp bases:

1) How much height you want in the base?

2) What color do you want in the base?

3) Is it for a contemporary or traditional room? Decide this and function and then you can figure out what you need shade wise.

4) Is this piece supposed to accent the room or be part of the room?  By all means then, mix Square Shades with Round Bottoms, add color, etc.

5) Will the lamp be functional or will it be more just for decor?  Reading? Lighting? This may determine the type of shade you pick for how luminary it will be.

6) Will the base be enhanced by the look of the lamp shade? (this is what you are going for)

7) Remember, variety is the spice of life and you are in the middle of variety heaven when you are at IKEA, there are so many shades and bases to pick from, try out all your choices, before you just pick one! Have fun with it!

My decisions to pick the table lamps and floor lamp that I did were based on the  functionality of the room as well as color in the room.  I did not pick the lights to be the focal point or to draw attention to them, rather I wanted them to highlight the new furniture and blend in while providing ample lighting.  I did choose a special floor lamp that is able to sit well in a corner, illuminate a bookcase while providing lighting to a reclining chair, again, I had specific functions for the lighting already thought out before I went shopping.  I hate returning things so I made sure of my room size, colors and where the pieces were going to go, and you might want to take all that into consideration as well! I can’t wait to share the final product with you!

Shopping with Jennifer at IKEA

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