We were at a friend's house the other day and couldn't stop playing with the hot, new dimmers she had installed in her kitchen. There is a 10 second fade-to-off so you don't get stuck in the dark when leaving the room, and tiny LEDs show where you are dimmed to.
These are by Maestro for Lutron and they make the light glide into lightness or darkness. super sexy. Super pleasing to the eye.
they work great in my new home. expensive though when you add them all up.
I use one of those in my bedroom. I like that they have a preset dim setting, but most importantly they have a remote control.
All my other dimmers are X-10 modules. They rock. I have macros for different moods. The one that gets people the most is when I push the "watch a DVD" button on my Harmony remote and as the TV and audio gear is setting themselves up, the lights are dimming, all automatically.