Tag Archives: wall lamp

Eclipse Wall Lamp Casts a Shadow That Appears to Have No Source

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Wall lamps tend to fall into one of two camps. They’re either purely functional fixtures you stop noticing the moment you move in, or purely decorative pieces that look good in daylight and do little else after dark. The gap between ambience and ornament is rarely explored, and most wall lighting ends up forcing you to choose between the two.

Slovenian designer Tilen Sepič’s Eclipse wall lamp sits right in that gap. First designed in 2012 and still in production today, it’s a piece that earns its keep in a room during the day just as much as it does at night, functioning as a sculptural object when the sun is up and something far more atmospheric once it goes down. That’s a harder balance to strike than it sounds.

Designer: Tilen Sepič

Hang the Eclipse during the day, and it reads as a clean circular ring of bent wood, not a lamp in any conventional sense. Available in natural laminated beech, white, or burnt wood finishes, it carries the kind of restraint that suits most interiors without disappearing entirely. It’s the sort of object that sits somewhere between a decorative piece and a quiet architectural presence.

Switch it on, and the lamp’s character shifts entirely. A high-CRI warm-white LED strip runs along the inner edge of the ring, outputting up to 3,000 lm of diffused light that bounces off the wall behind it. At a color temperature of 3,000 to 3,200 K, the warmth sits in the range most people associate with relaxed, residential lighting, enough to settle a room without tipping into amber.

What makes the Eclipse stranger and more interesting than most accent lamps is the shadow it produces alongside the light. The ring casts a deep circular shadow in the center of its glow, one that appears to exist without a clear origin or reference point. A slight gradient in the shadow’s color temperature reportedly mimics the quality of natural afternoon light.

The ring’s distance from the wall isn’t fixed, which is where the Eclipse gets more interesting still. Pulling the frame outward softens and widens the glow; pushing it closer sharpens the effect and deepens the contrast. This single manual adjustment can completely change the mood of a room, and Sepič frames each change as a deliberate act rather than a routine one.

The wooden edition comes in 70 cm and 90 cm sizes, starting from €585 for the 70-cm version, and is a handmade piece by piece in Slovenia with a lead time of three to four weeks. For larger architectural installations, Bazar Noir offers a version in powder-coated aluminium at 120 cm and 150 cm diameters, which pulls the design into more monumental territory. It’s a lamp that genuinely rewards attention, one that gives back a little more the longer it stays on your wall.

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These ‘Sandscape’ Lamps Turn Reflected Light Into Sculptural Artpieces

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There is a moment at dusk when the boundary between sky and water dissolves. The sun hangs low, the tide softens, and the surface of the sea becomes a trembling mirror, holding light in fragments. Studio Haran’s Sandscape Collection seems to trap that exact instant. These sculptural luminaires do not simply resemble waves. They resemble the reflection of something luminous hovering above them, as though the moon or sun has descended and dissolved into ripples.

The magic lies in the relationship between form and illumination. Each piece is carved with undulating contours derived from real tidal formations scanned along the Cornish coastline. The surface behaves like a miniature seascape, complete with peaks, troughs, and subtle ridgelines. When the spherical light source glows, it does not just illuminate the piece. It performs. The orb reads like a celestial body hovering over water, while the carved wood becomes the restless surface below, catching and scattering its light.

Designer: Studio Haran

As brightness touches the crests and slips into the carved valleys, the illusion intensifies. Highlights shimmer like sun streaks across waves at noon. Softer gradients resemble moonlight stretching across a night tide. The piece shifts depending on angle and distance. Step to one side and the glow pools like reflected dusk. Move again, and it fractures into sparkling fragments. It feels less like looking at a lamp and more like witnessing a natural phenomenon condensed into an object.

Material selection deepens this celestial illusion. Oak amplifies warmth, making the light read like late afternoon sun glancing off shallow water. Walnut introduces depth, creating the mood of twilight reflections where light lingers, but shadows gather. Ebonised oak heightens contrast, evoking night seas where the moon’s glow appears almost liquid against darkness. Ceramic accents punctuate these landscapes with tonal stillness, acting like quiet horizons amid motion. With custom glaze options, these ceramic elements can echo anything from dawn pastels to stormy night tones, allowing the piece to shift emotional register without losing coherence.

Conceptually, the Sandscape Collection occupies a rare poetic territory in contemporary design. It does not imitate nature. It recreates an experience of nature. Instead of presenting waves themselves, it presents the phenomenon of light meeting water, a far more elusive and emotionally resonant subject. The pieces feel like memories rather than objects, like moments recalled rather than forms constructed.

Placed within an interior, the effect is quietly transportive. The room remains still, yet the surface suggests motion. The lamp sits solidly, yet the light seems to drift. It is a reminder that the most powerful design does not always demand attention. Sometimes it simply glows, as a distant moon reflected on a dark sea, asking nothing more than that you pause and look.

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Illuminated brick redefines what it means to be a wall lamp

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As their name plainly points out, wall lamps are lights that we stick to walls, permanently or sometimes temporarily. Most wall lamps are installed indoors to infuse a space with a specific ambiance, but some are also left outdoors to give illumination at night. There is some degree of flexibility and freedom in the way these lamps can be added, removed, and moved when necessary, but it also makes them look out of place sometimes or a superficial part of the wall. Another design strategy would be to discreetly embed the lights into the wall itself, which is what these odd-looking lamps offer in what could be considered a literal interpretation of a wall lamp.

Designer: Omar Gandhi Architects, Filo Timo, Aaline

It would definitely be a magical experience to touch a brick on a wall and suddenly have it light up with a warm glow. While doing that for every brick is impractical and expensive, having a few select spots turn into lamps can definitely level up the ambiance of a space with very little effort. Yes, you could just dig a hole into the wall to install some regular old lights, but the OG Brick makes the lighting look like an integral part of the wall rather than an afterthought.

Technically, they are part of the wall, as these are supposed to be layered alongside other bricks while the masonry wall is being set up. They’re also designed to blend in with the rest of the wall during the day when the lights are off, though they probably won’t match every wall color you can come up with. Variations include stainless steel, black powder-coated, and electroplated brown to cover the majority of brick wall hues.

The bricks aren’t made from clay or cement, of course, but have a hard metal frame to withstand the weight of the real bricks above it. A color-matching mesh covers the actual light element and makes the OG Brick “disappear” into its surroundings in the daytime. Since they are designed to be used in masonry walls, the lamps can be used both indoors as well as outdoors.

The visual effect these illuminated bricks give is both subtle yet also endearing, especially thanks to the warm glow of the lights. Despite blending with its surroundings, the OG Brick creates a pleasing juxtaposition between the rough simplicity of regular bricks and the fine craftsmanship of metalwork. Whether outdoors or indoors, the end result is a charming composition on a wall where a few bricks light up like magic.

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IKEA JETSTRÖM smart LED wall light panel embodies the brand’s minimalist spirit

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It’s almost too easy to get into the smart lighting scene, especially if you consider bulbs you can simply screw on, string lights you just need to hang, or panels you can stick to walls or other flat surfaces. That said, the theory might be simple, but the design and features of these smart lights can sometimes be complex and confusing, requiring owners to spend time, effort, and energy on setting up the “perfect” installation. Ever the masters of minimalism, IKEA is fighting against the flow with its newest smart light design, basically just a simple, nondescript square panel that does one thing but does it to beautiful perfection.

Designer: Andreas Fredriksson (IKEA)

IKEA can probably be credited for popularizing two things: flat-packed furniture, and Scandinavian minimalism. Granted, some of its designs straddle the fine line separating design trends, and it has also become infamous for simple yet overpriced products. The new IKEA JETSTRÖM, however, seems to go back to the roots of the brand’s design language, championing elegant minimalism that can fit any interior motif over complex shapes and features.

Like the ceiling lamp of the same name, the new JETSTRÖM is a single-piece lighting panel, this time just a 30cm x 30cm (11.8in x 11.8in) square. It’s not a plain square though, as it has rounded corners and curved edges, softening some of the harshness that usually comes from straight edges and inorganic forms. There’s only one color available for the diffuser cover, and you can’t really go wrong with white in order to blend well with different wall colors and decors.

That’s pretty much it in terms of visual design and aesthetics. There are no connecting mechanisms to worry about, as each JETSTRÖM is intended to be a self-sufficient and sometimes isolated unit. You can place several of these squares side by side if you want to, but there’s no requirement or expectation to do so, unlike wall-mounted smart lights like those from Nanoleaf. In a way, it’s a “what you see is what you get” kind of experience, and it’s a simple yet powerful one.

It might look simple, but the JETSTRÖM isn’t lacking in smart lighting features, at least when it comes to the essentials. The default cold white light can be made warmer to set the mood, or set to different colors to match a theme. All of these can be set from the IKEA Home mobile app, whether on its own or in concert with other IKEA smart lights via the DIRIGERA hub. To keep things even simpler, you can use a dedicated remote, though that’s a separate purchase. And contrary to expectations, the IKEA JETSTRÖM actually only costs around $44, which is pretty affordable for a large smart LED panel, especially one that comes from IKEA.

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Sculptural wall lamps bring an otherworldly aura inspired by sunflowers

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A lot of designs these days take their cue from nature, perhaps the greatest designer that ever existed. Some simply use natural forms as their starting point while others imitate them almost completely. Yet there are also others who try to interpret organic shapes in a different way, resulting in a design that is both familiar yet almost alien. This wall lighting, for example, takes inspiration from the tiny disk flowers inside a beautiful sunflower, but the play of light and shadows gives it an almost hypnotic appearance, whether the lamp is actually on or not.

Designer: Rollo Bryant

It’s probably not common knowledge, but the flower that most people “see” when looking at a sunflower is actually a flower head that’s made up of a bunch of tiny flowers called disk florets. It’s a rather unique arrangement that becomes even more enchanting when you learn about it, giving the sunflower an otherworldly character. That’s the kind of character that the Aureole collection of wall-mounted lighting tries to embody, not just in its appearance but also in the material used to create its mesmerizing form.

The lamps use quartz sand for its main body, a material that’s often used for moulds that are then used to create other objects. In Aureole, however, the sand is the final product instead, and its production pushes the envelope of both what the material can be used for as well as the 3D printing technology employed for creating the complex structures of the lamp’s shape.

That shape is almost like a maze of intersecting curves or an array of raised bits swirling around the center, trying to recreate the appearance of those disk florets without being too literal. They only suggest the general shape of the sunflower head but still leave plenty of room for artistic interpretation. Closer inspection reveals a more intricate network of lines and curves, almost like the structures that bees and ants leave behind in their hives and homes. While completely natural in inspiration, it almost gives the lamp an alien-like vibe as well.

Once the light shines from beneath an opaque black disc in the center, the wall-mounting lighting takes on a completely different personality, ethereal and mesmerizing. Thanks to those complex 3D structures, the light casts shadows in unique and intricate ways, creating an eerie atmosphere that seems to lock your eyes in a swirling spiral of yellow and black contrasts. Because the light is coming from behind the disc, there is also an element of mystery to the aesthetic, as if watching a solar eclipse corona burst into a dizzying pattern. Either way, the Aureole wall lamps definitely captivate people’s minds and imagination, a true conversation starter in any setting.

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Upcycled skateboard factory rejects transform into warm wall lighting

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Recycling is a great way to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, but the process itself can sometimes have some negative impact. There’s still a lot of energy and water involved in converting materials into something usable again, and there’s also some loss when the original design gets destroyed in the process. Upcycling is a more efficient and time-saving alternative, but not everything can be upcycled and not everything that can be upcycled can be used in newer and better ways. Sometimes, it takes a bit more creative thinking to transform one thing into a completely different thing, like how factory seconds from skateboard manufacturers are turned into these understated yet elegant wall lamps.

Designers: Michael and Mariel Upton

Skateboards are objects that bring up images of speed, tricks, and devilish stunts. They’re hardly associated with warmth, subtlety, or even light. Of course, these associations aren’t inherent in the shape of the skateboard’s wooden deck, which makes them open for reuse and reinterpretation, as the case of this trio of wall lamps demonstrates, providing stylish lighting that hardly gives a clue to their origins.

Considering the long oval shapes of skateboard decks, not to mention their upward curved ends, you definitely wouldn’t be able to guess that these wall lights are exactly made from those wooden parts. That’s because these pieces of 7-ply maple wood are taken from factory rejects, decks that obviously didn’t make the cut. Since the shapes of these boards are too specific for general use, they often end up simply being discarded. They’re thankfully made from wood, so they’re biodegradable and have fewer harmful effects on the environment, but they’re still waste and, more importantly, wasted opportunity.

Upton thankfully has the wonderful idea of using those boards to provide ambient lighting as well as a piece of minimalist wall art. The discarded decks are cut to create a shorter and straighter oval shape and then paired with lighting hardware on the back. Each of the three variants, namely, Heru, Cuna, and Mara, get a square piece of original art that becomes the visual center of the entire fixture. With this, even if the light is off, the designs act as decorative pieces that enhance a room’s ambiance in a subtle way.

When the light is on, however, you get a warm ambient halo of light that sets a calming and relaxing mood in any space. The light is emitted from the back and is reflected on the mounting surface, making it look softer and avoiding painful glare when you look in its direction. The wall lamp projects a character of calm and warmth, definitely not something you’d expect from a speedster skateboard that it would have become in some other lifetime.

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