This $20 Stained Glass Lighting “Hack” Completely Transformed My Life

Every light switch in my apartment has a dimmer — something that I thought would change my life when I moved into my apartment three years ago. But I realized that in spite of them being dimmable, even at their lowest setting they were too aggressive and bright for me to function. The Big Lights, as TikTok and I like to call them, are the enemy. Overhead lights rarely stay on for longer than it takes to find my way to turn on my many lamps — and all of them have a gentle rainbow glow, thanks to stained glass light bulbs.

I was concerned at first about these lights being bright enough to work in. But because I have two floor lamps — both vintage finds, with one floor-to-ceiling floral number on a tension rod, and one lotus floor lamp with four different bulbs — they are able to illuminate my working area and the whole room with a gentle yet impactful aura of color. It works just as well for writing — as I am right now — as it does for relaxing. I usually work with natural light and one lamp for most of the day and turn the second one on once the sun sets (way too early). 

The light bulbs I invested in are cheaper than the way I discovered stained glass bulbs. I bought one GE stained glass light bulb at Target, then discovered they were either discontinued or hard to find, and bought these stained glass bulbs on Amazon ($18.99 for a 2-pack). I can’t tell the difference between the two, and all of them help illuminate my life and inspire my creativity by finding a rainbow at the end of every lamp, and if I’m lucky, a pot of gold from those brilliant ideas.