Lamps and Broken Bulbs

Saturday, January 20, 2007 - Posted by Amanda Bast
I’ve recently switched rooms from the main floor to the basement. In doing so, I took it upon myself to completely redecorate. New paint colour, new bedspread, and I got rid of the ugly gold lamp from my previous room. You’d probably agree with me in saying that it is ugly. Because it is. I’m now in the process of searching for a new bedside table lamp, and I’m not having much success.

I went to Canadian Tire, and found a cute one that I liked, but when I looked for the box, there were only floor lamps of the same style. I don’t need a floor lamp, just a little one, please. When we talked to the kid in lighting (his pants were quite low; I wanted to offer him my belt) he informed us that the little ones were discontinued, but we could have the display model. I thought about it, and although it was cheap and just the size that would fit, I didn’t want the display model. It had come in contact with too many other people, and I knew it probably wouldn’t last as long. Besides, it didn’t really fit in with my room as well as I would have liked.

My next stop was Stone Road Mall in Guelph. I had some time to kill (6 hours, to be exact) in between classes, so I thought I’d continue my lamp hunt. I browsed in some stores looking at their lamps, trying to figure out which one would suit my taste the best. Sometimes just taking two steps into the store and glancing was long enough for me to decide. Some were too fancy, others were too big, or too small (not to mention ridiculously expensive). I found a few that were ok, but I’m not one to spend my money on something that is just “ok”. Some were just hilarious – like really, who makes a lamp look like a pineapple?

I went into Homesense, a store I’ve heard lots of good things about, but haven’t really ventured in before. I expected a Winners-type store, but with home furnishings and not clothing, but it was surprisingly better than that. It caught me off guard, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was more like a Linens-n-Things, but it just looks a little different out front. I found the lighting section, and spotted a lamp that was perfect. I did not expect to find a lamp so awesome there, but I did. I stood and looked at it for awhile, and then bent down to check the price. No price tag. Ok, so I looked for the box on the shelf. No box. I was beginning to worry. I finally found the box with that lamp on, but I was disappointed when I discovered that it came in a set of four. Not too bad of a price, but still. I do not need four lamps for my tiny room. I left Homesense feeling deflated.

I’m not a fan of shopping. I don't think I'm lazy, by any means, I just like to be efficient, and not waste money on something that won't be any good in the long run. I want to save myself some of the disappointment that I always feel when I spend too much time shopping around. I’d rather find a store that I really like and get everything in one place. Like IKEA. I need to find an IKEA.





P.S. I'm not blogging about lamp shopping. It's not something worth blogging about, in my opinion. If you can guess what it's actually about, I'll give you a dollar.