It’s a little over five years since Wendy and I moved into our current abode. One of the first things we did upon moving in was to change all the light bulbs, and we’ve continued to tinker ever since. The quality of light can transform a space, and buying the right bulbs for a particular room has become ever more complicated… and perhaps I’ve become ever more obsessed.

I recently bought a new lamp for my desk at work—a very simple and cheap IKEA Fado. It has attracted many admiring comments. Unbeknownst to the commenters, I suspect their admiration lies more in the warm and homely quality of the light from this Paul Russells bulb than the fixture itself.

I recently stumbled across this New York article from March 2023 in which Tom Scocca examines the transition to LED lightbulbs. Scocca, in my opinion, undersells the benefits. Our home has rooms that transition beautifully from cool, clinical lighting, ideal for working, to cosy, warm lighting, perfect for snuggling up with a book, all at the touch of a button. This wouldn’t have been possible with incandescent alternatives, not least because hidden self-adhesive LED strips supply some of the light. However, I did sympathise with Scocca’s troubles and found the challenges faced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to be, if you’ll excuse the pun, quite illuminating.