One of my friends wants a better lighting solution for her work area. Her house is an open design with an office area of the larger living room. Her desk currently has a 3 bulb dome fixture above it. Straight ahead is another 3 bulb fixture 12 feet away and to the left is a 2 bulb fixture 1 feet away. Overall this is more light then anyone would normally need.
The issue is quality of lighting. all the current fixtures use soft light compact florescents. They give off the softer more yellowish light that has become popular.
She has been doing a lot of work at home recently grading cards and some other specific items where condition is very important.(Mint, Near Mint, etc). When she looks at the same cards under other lighting, like outside or in convention halls, she sometimes find her ratings to be flawed.
While my solution would be to throw a T-8 fixture up above the desk with white bulbs to provide the lighting she wants, it doesn’t work out for the aesthetics of the room. So I’m left finding a classy fixture that can provide more direct lighting or some type of desk lamp. I’m thinking a good halogen lamp should do the trick(if I can find one these days).
For those of you with similar lighting requirements what have your solutions been? Any fixtures or lamps that have worked well for you? Any particular type of bulbs that have excelled?