Lighting is so vital to good design, without proper illumination the entire space -- no matter how pretty -- can make your home (and even you) look less that the best. Crate and Barrel has some great lamps out this season, some are quite mod and the colors are all very lively and there are some fun shapes in the mix, too. My favorite is the Lasso black desk light because it looks very Scandinavian and I can see it on a white wooden desk with a black and white striped throw rug beneath and misc. decorative accents in emerald green or perhaps even an emerald green wall behind the desk. I'm really liking the color combination lately of green, black and white for some reason. Oh that would be pretty. Here are few lamps from C&B that caught my eye, but I'm going to wrap this up with a budget tip for those of you who aren't looking to lay down the bucks on a lamp right now...

a.Mod aqua table lamp, b. Pagoda table lamp, c. Swell lamp, d. Marina table lamp and Lasso desk lamps.

Some of these shapes make you think twice about those ugly lamps sitting in the second hand shops for $5 don't they? What I mean is that if a lamp has a good shape to it, why not imagine it in your favorite color -- take it home and transform it into something special if you cannot always afford a brand new lamp - just spray the base with paint - bring blue, pink, white, orange... You can even buy a simple white drum shade to top it from a store like IKEA or Target and if you want to coordinate the lamp shade with the base, glue some grosgrain ribbon around the top of the lampshade and again around the bottom and there you have it - a lovely lamp for a low price.

(images: crate and barrel)