Some times you go to the store. You see a pair of lamps. You buy them. Boom. Done. Sometimes it’s easy.
Other times you set out to do the very same thing, and it turns into a weird odyssey that’s longer and larger than it deserves to be.
I wanted to replace the tiny bedside lamps we had. I liked them once upon a time, but they were very small (like less than a foot tall). They also sometimes flickered or turned on under their own will, and with our old house, that frightened me a little.
My first stop for accessories is usually an antique mall. I remembered this pair of brass lamps I saw months ago (but passed on) and thought I might be able to find something similar.
I went to four different antique malls in two days, but all I found was this:
Strike out. Sure, I could have waited a while and tried again, but I was motivated to find something now. And so I gave myself permission to go ahead and buy new.
I shopped around. Every store I went to, I was on the lookout for lamps. But most things I saw were too enormous for our petite nightstands or way more than I wanted to spend.
After a bunch of online searching, I found some cheap clearance lamps on Target.com. But after a two-day online ordering debacle (a frozen shopping cart and unresponsive customer service), I decided to let them go.
But then I ran across these pharmacy-style task lamps.
Would you believe me if I told you they were from Home Depot? And for an affordable $34 each! Yeah, I know! They look very similar to much more expensive lamps from Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. And way more stylish than I would have expected from HD. I paid full retail with no discounts. So unlike me!
