My apartment has these terrible light “fixtures” in the hallways. By “fixture” I mean there isn’t actually a fixture. They’re meant to have a large globe light bulb in them. Except a) they don’t and b) I’ve never a seen a globe light bulb of that size in a store (little ones, sure, but not giant ones) to replace the regular-size bulbs they do have.

So anyway, one day I’m procrastinating, staring at the ceiling, and instead of coming up with the plot of the Great Canadian Novel, I come up with an idea for dealing with those oh-so-classy bare light bulbs.

At the next opportunity, I head to Ikea where I serendipitously find exactly what I’m looking for (the Renate shade, $5). Still, I don’t know if it will actually work until I try it.

Home again, where I do try it… and it does work! Perfectly. Behold, the upside-down lampshade solution:

While it’s kind of embarrassing this didn’t occur to me sooner, I thought I’d post it for anyone else who might have a bare light bulb dilemma.

p.s. Sorry about the hideous popcorn ceiling. I know all you HGTV stainless steel/granite people are probably scarred for life 😉