Blinded By The Light
Posted by Michael, March 28th, 2012
Sing it, you know you want to! I am. Blinddddeeddd by the liiigggghhtt. Bli-bli-bllllliiinndddddeedd.
We had a problem when we installed our diffuser-less light fixture the other day, just after we finished painting the nursery. The bulb was insanely bright, like sun-spots bright. I think Rebecca realized this when she caught me staring into the bulb for a solid 15 seconds. Her line of thinking was probably, “well if Mike stares into this thing for 15 seconds at a time, then baby will do it for 30 seconds.” Not good.
I proposed putting the light on a dimmer. At least with a dimmer, we’d be able to control the brightness. But then we both realized that when this baby is crying at 4am, neither one of us will think, “oh hey, this light is on a dimmer, let me decrease the brightness before I pick up this crying baby.” Yes, out went the dimmer solution.
The bulb dips just where the shade ends, so even if we wanted to make/buy/steal a diffuser, we wouldn’t be able to use one. The bulb would literally sit on the diffuser and eventually we would have a nice fire in our house. Great.
We begin thinking, I joked about putting in a black light far too often and then we thought, “restaurants often use silver tipped bulbs!” Oh, if you were paying close enough attention, you saw our solution already in Rebecca’s last post. But enough about Rebecca. We headed off to our local Lowes. No silver tipped bulbs. We then headed to the Home Depot across the street. After having the lady search for a solid ten minutes, no silver tipped bulbs either. We gave up and decided the internet wins again.
We got home, pulled up Amazon and a couple seconds later we bought a 100W half chrome bulb.
Now these things aren’t cheap at almost $7 a pop, but they get the job done. They fill the room with plenty of light and allow you to look at the bulb if your eyes should cross it’s path. Boring, if you’re me, but safe if you’re a baby. Baby 1, Mike 0.
And here is the bulb in all it’s glory. The chrome actually looks a bit stylish.
Tags: bulb, chrome, light bulb, silver tipped
$7 a bulb… ouch! The chrome peeking out of the shade does make it look stylish – like it’s a part of the fixture. I’m digging it. When you guys get a chance, you should take a picture of the room at night with the light on so we can see the difference.
Haha I already told Mike he should have included a picture of the light on! But tired, pregnant beggars who simply ask for a post on a lightbulb can’t be choosers 🙂 I’ll try to throw one up tonight
I didn’t even know these types of bulbs existed… it’s definitely good to know!
PUT IT ON A DIMMER!!! Since we had our child who is now 2 and half we have put all the lights in our house on dimmers, 1st they are way better than night lights you turn it all the way down when you put baby to bed and you can peak in and see them. Also not that baby is 2 she doesn’t like it when its dark so we turn the dimmer all the way down. We love our dimmers and would not know what to do with out them.
There are light switches that have BOTH the dimmer and on/off options, so you can set the brightness you want with the dimmer and then control having the light turned on or off with the switch. GENIUS!
That is one sexy lightbulb! I’d still put in a dimmer, though, since they’re so convenient. 🙂
That is a cool looking lightbulb! Let’s see it turned on! 🙂
Are you still planning on using the giraffe lamps too??
Yep! Giraffes will hopefully be making an appearance soon!
Interesting bulb, I will be curious to hear how baby and parents are doing with it in the real world of little sleep and not really knowing what time/day it is.
Best of luck always. And should the bulb not solve the problem of fried retinas in the middle of the night, I discovered these while looking for a new chandelier for my dining room. Thought you might be interested:
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/shade-diffuser/lighting/lighting-accessories/209473?isCrossSell=true&strategy=42
I thought of you when I was in Ikea and saw a similar light fixture. They used parchment paper for the diffuser, that might be an inexpensive option if the light bulb doesn’t work out.