We have swing-arm lamps on the wall (3-way, 150 max) and love them. The arms allow for repositioning the lamp, and the 3-way switch allows for bright light for reading, or low light for ambience.

If I want to read at night, I usually stay in another area of the house. We both like a totally dark room for sleeping.

Lamp on the bedside dresser. We have recently added a wireless switch so we don't have to reach for the switch on thelamp.

No lights are allowed on when the other one wants to sleep. Sometimes DH uses a little flashlight to read his newspaper.

I personally think it would be very cool to have wall sconces, and whatever source of light, to have the switch installed (somehow concealed) on the headboard. Some hotels we've stayed in have the switch on the side of the night stand, that's nice too.

I have substantial lamps and small crystal electric candles (that are ambient lighting) on each bedside table. I read every night in bed and like having a big bedside table lamp. The light is softer than a direct light right overhead on my shoulder.
However, I also have a huge king 4-poster with a giant headboard so the lamps work best with the bed.

I have small lamps on the night tables.

Clip on lamps on the headboard. That don't match. 8-/
(Are we low budget frugal or what?)

DH shades his head under a pillow.

-Lena

My DH and I used to bicker about this all the time. Finally I found a small wall sconce online and so far it's been the perfect compromise. Now I can read in bed while he snores.

Mine is similar to lenam's except it is silver. We have just one in the middle. I like that you can crane it's neck to one side, the other,or make it point back towards the wall...but that is ALL I like about it!

I have two crystal three-way 150-watt bulb lamps on my night tables. I like to read in bed so this is good for me. I also like the way they look. The members of this forum helped me choose them.

thank you, thank you! more?

Wall sconces, girl...it was one of the first things I designed into the remodeled master suite and I'm *so* happy every single night, just because of the sconces :) They're not only good for reading, they're infinitely dimmable, which makes for some amazingly mood-inducing light to...look at the stars...

We used to have swing arm, 3 way bulb wall lamps. Recently switched to 3 way bulb lamps on each night stand. I switch off my lamp when DH switches his off and then I use a booklight. He returns the courtesy by being quiet as a mouse in the morning since he is the early riser. Works well for us.

Igloo, I love your doggie lamps!

We have a 3-way table lamp on each nightstand. I like them except that they have shallow drum shades so when you're standing, you can see the bulb from the top. I keep meaning to buy new shades... or replace them with wall sconces since our nightstand tops tend to get cluttered with books.

Wall swing-arm lamps -- and we both read before sleeping -- so these work out well for us!

Plus (no surprise here! LOL!) we have lots of lamps around the whole room -- and a night-light in the bath .....

I read in bed, my DH does not, so I always used a light that wouldn't disurb him. For many years I used a small bed lamp that was made to hang on a headboard. It could swivel up and down, so I would use it in the down position so that light was reflected off the headboard so the bulb wouldnt glare in our eyes from above. Then we got a new bed with a much higher headboard, so I now use a battery operated booklight that has LED bulb and lasts months! I dont read sitting up, so it's perfect, and doesn't bother DH at all. (the first booklight I tried only lasted a week, this one seems to last forever between battery changes).

Our last MB had a wall mount swing lamp that I just loved.

I am using a table lamp in the new house and I can't see nearly as well. I've even taken the shade off so I'm looking for a replacement. The builder placed the windows in such stupid places that I can't go back to another wall mount.

This was an important thing when we redesigned our bedroom. DH and I are avid readers, but never read in bed at the same time (strange... but this is a fact of life...). We tried wall sconces, but it was too much light for me. I just couldn't fall asleep. We tried a portable reading light, but just seemed like too much fuss and we did not really use it (on and off). So, when we remodeled, I looked all over the place for a functional solution and found something: a sconce with an attached reading lamp.

This is not mine (link below), but mine is similar. It is MARVELOUS. It may not be the greatest look-wise, but is so functional. No more bickering.... It works for us...

Here is a link that might be useful: Sconce with a reading light

Our nightstands are really too small to put lamps on and still have room for clock, drink, book and TV remote. In our previous house I had wall-mounted swing-arm lamps which I loved.

{{!gwi}}

Sadly, the deep slant of the ceiling in our bedroom in this house precludes their use - they're just too big. (The best wall to put the bed on has the heating vent right smack in the middle of it, and it would cost a couple of thousand dollars we don't have right now to get it moved, if we want it done properly. So we're stuck under the slant. I can't use my antique brass headboard until we do that, either, since it's over 5' tall.) I have two small sconces I could put up but I need to do some repairs on them before I can do so, and I just haven't gotten around to it.

{{!gwi}}

I would absolutely LOVE to get these "Turner" swing-arm sconces from Rejuvenation. But, I choke on the $350+ price, and the expensive electrical work involved would be wasted since we DO want to move that heating vent and rearrange the bedroom, so I'd have to take them to a lamp shop and have them retrofitted with cords.

At this time we both use small Maglite flashlights *wry grin* for reading if one person is sleeping. Every booklight I've purchased has broken within a year.

I have an architect lamp with a solid metal shade. My bed is adjustable, so any wall mounted lamp wouldn't work. I love this lamp because it is completely adjustable, and I do read in bed when my husband sleeps.

Here is a link that might be useful: architect lamp

We each have a buffet-height lamp on a nightstand. The nightstands are really 1950s rattan end tables, so they are a bit low. The height of the buffet lamp works out just about right. Each is a 2-way and either of us is able to get to sleep if the other is still reading.

Thanks, everyone, this is good information. DH and I need to rethink our nightstand/lamp combo (though after this very pricey Xmas season it'll be a while, and I probably should have waited until April to do this poll!), and I was leaning toward wall-mounted swing-arm sconces. Some great ideas above. Mari and Igloo, what gorgeous bedrooms!

bump

Thanks walkin, I do miss that bedroom - it was just a few months after that was finished that the house went on the market. :-( The MBR in our current house has a bad case of the fuglies. Just can't do anything with it right yet since we're stuck in the cascade effect of "can't do X until Y is done, can't do Y until Z is done, etc. etc." Can't even paint because of all the plasterwork that needs doing and the trim that needs to be stripped of its zillion layers of chipping, peeling paint.

3-way swing arm wall-mounts.

No dislikes.

Love the table space they free up, and no danger of knocking them over accidentally.

I only read in bed when I'm there alone.

We have lights (and small shelves) built into our headboard. It's probably not the most attractive thing ever, but it's functional! There's a light on each side which is fine for reading and not hugely bright, so the other person can usually sleep. Although normally it's me reading and DH the night owl still up so it doesn't often matter how bright.

We got ours *very* inexpensively, walkin -- at Lamps Plus. Just little modern things, but swing arm, dimmable, turnable (so I can angle it further away from DH because I'm the one who stays up late)...LOVE them. There are so many out there with different configurations - you'll surely find the ones that work best for you. I wanted turnable and dimmable. I'll link to something very close to we got. They're mostly functional, not much adornment, but I'm sure there are similarly configured sconces in different styles.

Here is a link that might be useful: these are from a different site, but very close to ours

Has anyone bought George Kovacs sconces/lamps? I ask only because his titles are hilarious -- and relevant to this thread. One double sconce with two pull-down bendy reading lamps is called "Save Your Marriage." (the one I think I like, though, is called "Boring." Oh well...)

Thanks as well walkin...I was thinking, after seeing Mari's room, I should have smoothed out the comforter LOL (that little white fur ball likes to bounce all over the bed heh heh)

I'm working on a crazy quilt in all autumn colors. Hopefully I'll get it finished as well as the curtains soon! I'm almost (but never will be) in fabric overload :O)

walkin, I looked at "save your marriage" and thought it's no way wide enough really to create a separate area of light and darkness. It would need much longer necks to do that. IIRC Ikea has one like that and it's also too short to be functional.

The "boring" is very beautiful and clean, but it does disperse light a lot more than some others; if segmentability is really a goal I'd test these in person before you buy to see if they can create almost-pinspot kind of reading situations. Light travels a lot further in a dark room than you'd think.

I sleep alone (except for a dog and a cat!), and I have a lamp next to my bedside on the nightstand. What I don't like about it is that I really have to reach up to turn it off when I am really sleepy. What I do like about the lamp is that it's tall enough to shed light onto the book. But I can't get it any closer to the bed without replacing my clock, which I like to have facing the bed. I'd like to hear more about those remote switches. I bought my matching lamps from PB years ago, and I love them. They are a tall wood base, with an antique white finish. The lampshades are handmade paper with pressed wispy ferns on them. They give a nice soft glow to the room, which is a warm yellow.
I would really love sconces; but it would be a big expense and would require some extensive electrical work in my 60 year old house.