Renter Friendly Living Room Lighting: The Three Pieces I've Used in Three Apartments

Renter friendly lighting for a living room is three pieces that plug in and travel: an arc floor lamp, a plug-in wall sconce on adhesive strips, and a plug-in pendant on a swag hook, and I've used the same three in three apartments with three different floor plans, and they've made each one look like the same person lives there. The arc lamp was $180 five years ago and it's in its third living room; the sconce and the pendant have been on four walls and three ceilings. This post is the three pieces and why each one, the setup in each of the three apartments with the plan, what changes with the room and what doesn't, the bulbs and dimmers that make them one system, the mounting that comes off clean, the fourth piece I added and the one I sold, the extension cords and the channels, how the setup arrives on night one, what to look for in each piece if you're buying once, mistakes, and what the setup cost across five years.

Piece one: the arc floor lamp

An arc lamp is the one lamp that lights the middle of a room from the edge, which is what a rental with no ceiling fixture you'd want to use needs; it curves from the corner over the sofa's end and puts a pool of light on the seat and the coffee table from above, like a pendant with no hole in the ceiling. Mine is brass and black with a 30-pound marble base and a 6-foot reach, on a plug-in dimmer at 2700K. It goes in whichever corner is nearest an outlet and the sofa, and the sofa goes where the arc reaches, which is the first decision in every apartment.

Piece two: the plug-in wall sconce

A plug-in wall sconce at 62 inches to center, on two adhesive strips, with the cord in a paintable channel to the nearest outlet, on the wall the sofa faces or the wall behind it; it's the middle height in the room, between the arc lamp above and the table lamp below, and it's the light that shows the wall has art on it. 2700K, 400 lumens, on a smart plug. It's the piece that's been on the most walls, and the strips are the reason. The plug-in sconce guide is the mounting.

Piece three: the plug-in pendant

A plug-in pendant, a 12-inch glass shade on a fabric cord, hung from a swag hook screwed into a ceiling joist, with the cord swagged to the wall and down to an outlet in a channel; over the coffee table in one apartment, over the dining table in another, over the reading chair in the third. The swag hook is the one hole in any of my apartments and it's a $9 fix with spackle at move-out. The pendant is the ceiling light I choose instead of the one the landlord installed, and it's at 2700K and 40 percent on a dimmer.

The setup in apartment one: the studio

Three hundred and twenty square feet, one room, one ceiling light. The arc lamp in the corner by the window over the sofa's end; the pendant over the coffee table, which was the living zone's ceiling; the sconce on the wall beside the bed, which was the bedroom's; and the studio was two rooms with three lights. The studio post is the zones, and the three pieces were the zones' lights before the bookshelf divider went in.

The setup in apartment two: the long living room

A living room 9 by 16, a railroad, with the sofa on the long wall and the window at one end. The arc lamp at the window end over the sofa, the sconce on the wall opposite the sofa over a console, the pendant at the far end over a small table that was the dining room, and the three pools of light broke the room's length into three zones. It's the room the setup was most obviously right in, because a long room under one ceiling light is a corridor and the same room under three pools is three rooms.

The setup in apartment three: this one

Eleven by 12, nearly square, the sofa against the charcoal wall opposite the window. The arc lamp in the corner over the sofa's end, the sconce beside the gallery wall grazing the frames, the pendant over the coffee table on the room's center line, and the ceiling light off with tape over its switch. The room is the smallest of the three living rooms and it reads as the most finished, because the square room is the one where three lights at three heights and one focal wall do the most. The apartment tour is the rest of it.

What changes, and what doesn't

What changes: which corner the arc lamp is in, which wall the sconce is on, and what the pendant hangs over. What doesn't: the arc lamp over the sofa's end, the sconce at 62 inches, the pendant at 30 to 36 inches over a surface, every bulb at 2700K, every light on a dimmer at 30 to 60 percent, and the ceiling light off. The room decides where; the rules decide how; and the rules are the reason three apartments looked like one person's.

The bulbs and dimmers that make them one system

Three 2700K dimmable LED bulbs, 800 lumens in the arc lamp, 400 in the sconce, 450 in the pendant, and three plug-in dimmers or smart plugs, so each pool has its own level and its own timer; the pendant at 40, the arc at 50, the sconce at 30 at night. The bulbs and dimmers are $60 for the three and they're the part that makes three lamps a system instead of three lamps; the layers post is the levels. The desk lamp, at 3000K, is the exception that lives at the table.

The mounting that comes off clean

The sconce on two strips, pulled straight down at move-out. The pendant on a swag hook, which is a hole and spackle. The cord channels, adhesive, off with a hairdryer, and the walls wiped with alcohol. The arc lamp standing. Three apartments, three move-outs, and no deposit lost to any of the three pieces, which is the renter rules in one paragraph. The one hole per apartment is the swag hook, and it's the hole I'd argue for with any landlord.

The fourth piece, and the one I sold

Added: a ceramic table lamp on the console, the fourth height, the lowest, which the square living room needed and the railroad didn't. Sold: a second floor lamp, a torchiere, that lit the ceiling and nothing else and that the first apartment's ceiling light made pointless; $25 on a listing and never missed. The three pieces are the setup; the fourth is the room's, and the torchiere is the lesson that a lamp pointing up is a ceiling light with extra steps.

Extension cords and channels

A 10-foot flat extension cord for the arc lamp when the corner isn't the outlet's, in a channel along the baseboard; a 6-foot cord for the sconce; the pendant's own 15-foot cord swagged and channeled. A cord channel is $12 for 10 feet, paintable, and the difference between a lamp where the light should be and a lamp where the outlet is, which is the fourth thing on the observations list. The channels come down with the strips and go in the box.

How the setup arrives on night one

In the car box, not the truck: the arc lamp's shade and bulb, the sconce with its strips and channel, the pendant with its swag hook and a screwdriver, three bulbs, three dimmers, and a tape measure. The arc lamp goes up in the first hour in the corner nearest the outlet; the sconce goes up in the first evening at 62 inches; the pendant waits for a day, for the joist to be found. The first 48 hours post is the order, and the three pieces are the reason the first night in every apartment has looked like home.

If you're buying once

The arc lamp: a base you can't lift with one hand, a reach of at least 5 feet, a shade that points down, E26. The sconce: plug-in, a cord over 6 feet, a shade that hides the bulb from the side, under 3 pounds so strips hold it, E26. The pendant: a plug-in cord at least 12 feet, a shade 10 to 14 inches, a fabric cord, and a swag hook rated for it. Buy all three for E26 so the bulbs are the same and the dimmers work, and buy the arc lamp last because it's the one you'll save for.

The living room with no outlet where it's needed

The second apartment's living room had two outlets, both on the window wall, and the sofa was on the opposite one; every lamp in the room ran on a channeled extension cord along the baseboard, three of them, in a paintable channel that the landlord never noticed. A room's outlets decide where the lamps can plug in and not where they go, and the channel is the difference; a cord along a baseboard in a channel painted the wall's color is invisible from standing height and it's $12. The rule is to put the lamp where the light's needed and solve the cord after, and the cord is always solvable.

The three pieces in a bedroom, which is the same setup smaller

The sconce at the bed, the pendant over the dresser or the reading chair, and the arc lamp's job done by a table lamp on the dresser, because an arc lamp in a 10-by-10 bedroom is a crane; three heights, the same bulbs, the same dimmers, and the ceiling light off. The bedroom version of the setup is $110 and it's the version that a friend with one room and no living room should buy first, because the bed is the place the ceiling light does the most harm.

Timers, which make three lamps one switch

Three smart plugs, $30, and one routine: "evening" brings the arc to 50, the pendant to 40 and the sconce to 30 at sunset, and "night" drops them to 30, 20 and 20 at 10; "off" is midnight. The three lamps are one switch on the phone and one word to a speaker, and the apartment has never had a lamp left on overnight or a dark room at 6 pm since. The timers are the part that makes three plug-in lamps behave like wired ones, and they're the part I set up on night one before the pendant is even hung.

Mistakes

The torchiere. A pendant on a hook in drywall, not a joist, once, and a pendant on the floor. A sconce on one strip. The arc lamp in the corner the outlet was in instead of the corner the sofa was in, for a month, until the extension cord. And the first apartment's first week under the ceiling light because the box was in the truck, which is why the box is in the car.

In one paragraph

An arc lamp over the sofa's end, a sconce at 62 inches on strips, a pendant on a swag hook over a table, all at 2700K, all on dimmers, the ceiling light off; the room decides the corner and the wall and the table, the rules decide everything else. Three pieces, one hole, three apartments, and a living room that's looked like the same person's every time.

What the setup cost across five years

The arc lamp, $180. The sconce, $48. The pendant, $70, and three swag hooks, $27. Bulbs, dimmers and channels, about $90 over the years. Strips, $30. About $445 for a living room's whole lighting in three apartments, or $150 an apartment, and the arc lamp, the most expensive piece, is the one that's going to the fourth living room first.