Forget the old style empty Mateus wine bottles made into lamps (hands up who knows anyone who had one?)….here’s a novel idea for a quick and easy way of transforming glass bottles into  lamps.

There’s no major diy involved with this – all you need to do is buy these cork bottle stopper lights. Charge them up via a USB cable, pop them in your desired bottle and, voila, you have a light!

The lights will last for approximately 2.5 hours, then can simply be recharged again. You can use them with any bottle, from empty wine and spirit bottles, to decorative or coloured glass bottles.

If you’re having a party and want to create atmospheric lighting, these bottle stopper lights would be much safer to use than candles stuck in bottles. If you don’t want them to all run out at the same time, you could stagger turning them on, so the effect lasts longer into the evening.

They’d also be great for using at barbecues on summer evenings, or when having late night drinks outside. The options are endless.

A pack of three rechargeable cork wine bottle stopper lights costs £13 from Hunter Gatherer.

Isn’t this cube floor lamp stunning? It’s most definitely a statement piece of home lighting.

The design consists of eight cubes stacked and joined together, each with a light in it. It’s sculptural and eye-catching, as well as serving a practical purpose of providing light in a room.

The Dexter lamps are made of steel and glass, and available in either a gunmetal or copper finish.

They look like designer lamps, but are amazingly being sold by Bhs. Top marks to them for fresh and contemporary lighting design!

Dan Challinor is director of specialist lighting and audio visual company Electrikery. Here he talks to Sara Walker and shares his tips on how to give your home a contemporary feel, using  clever lighting and audio visual tricks.

Starting from scratch

According to Dan, if you’re starting with a blank canvas then there’s no limit to what you can achieve with your home.

Linear lighting gives a modern edge

“For a really modern look, we like to hide the lighting, unless it’s an architectural light fitting that really forms part of the decor,” he explains. “We use a lot of linear lighting, so the light fittings themselves are hidden, and you just see the glow. The shadow and dark spaces around the lights are just as important in making an impact – if you’re using downlighters, for example, you’ll get a band of light bordered by bands of shadow, which can be made to look very visually impressive.”

Updating

If you’re on a lower budget or are having to work within the confines of an existing room, there’s still plenty you can do to give your home a more modern feel.

“Lamps are very accessible and easy,” says Dan. “Our technical director and chief designer, Richard Mather, will often work by hiding any overhead lighting and just using feature lighting to give targeted light.

That means you have a room that feels clean and uncluttered, but you’ve still got light where you need it. In a room such as a sitting room, if you have old-fashioned overhead fittings, you can simply take them out and just use lamps.

Recessed lighting gives a clean feel to a period room.

“Another really easy way to give a room a modern feel is just to change your light bulbs. Since the advent of LED bulbs, there are dozens of shades of white and colours to choose from. Old-style bulbs give off a lot of heat, and the bulbs tend to become scorched as time goes on, so that the light is yellower, giving a cosy old-fashioned feel which won’t suit a modern interior.

Just replacing your bulbs with LED white lights and painting the walls white will completely transform a room, making it feel instantly lighter, brighter and crisper. LED bulbs have been a real innovation – at £5 to £20 each they may seem expensive, but they’ll last on average between two and three thousand hours, which is ideal in the UK when we need our lights on a lot in the winter.”

Audio visual

Once you’ve sorted out your lighting, it’s time to think about continuing the clean, contemporary look with your TV or music system.

“These days, there are three options for wall-mounting speakers – on the wall, in the wall and behind the wall,” explains Dan.

“You can actually position the speaker behind the wall so that it’s completely hidden and plastered over, but it’s best done when the wall is built. You can retro-fit, but it’s a messy job! It also leaves a portion of your wall unusable, as you can’t put in hooks for pictures or anything like that.

“An alternative solution that we’re using more and more is to hide the speaker cover with artwork. We use a great company called Artcoustic, who produce acoustically transparent canvas that comes either ready-printed with a photo, or personalised with your own photo. Artcoustic also provide just the canvas, and we’ve used it to make prints of old movie posters for some customers, to give an authentic cinema feel.

“Another way of hiding a TV is to use an automated mount. There are many different designs, and at the touch of a button you can have a mirror or picture that slides back into a cavity and a TV that slides out. Another great product is called Magic Mirror, special mirrors that actually turn into TVs – the image floats on the mirror itself. Lots of people like to have mirrors over their fireplaces, and often that’s the only place to put the TV, as well, so now you can have both in one.

Magic Mirror in daytime, ‘mirror’ mode…

….and in TV mode.

“If you’re thinking of making any major changes to your home, do get some expert advice – much more is possible than you might think!”

You can find out more about Electrikery by visiting their website, www.electrikery.co.uk

Next has come up trumps with their lighting range this season. They’ve got some very funky contemporary lights suitable for all budgets. Here are some of our favourite picks.

The Smoke crackle table lamp, £32, is a lovely design and the lamp base is very attractive.

The Blake 9 light, £130, is a great contemporary light in designer style.

We love the Stag head light, £25, which will light up your wall in style – it’s not just a lamp, but a nice piece of wall decor too

The Rover dog table lamp, £30, is super cute too and very quirky.

For something a bit different, how about a white lit bay ball, £35. Have it as a faux flower decoration in the day, then turn it on and add a bit of atmosphere to your room.

Also in the Blake range is the Blake 15 light, £200. It’s a striking light to have in the centre of a room – we can see it working well above a dining table, for example.

In terms of standing floor lamps, the Hanbury plum floor lamp, £100, would fit in well with a plum or purple decor scheme.

We can’t resist the bow tie dog table lamp, £45 – very characterful!

Do you have a favourite?

This isn’t any old desk lamp, this is the Kartell Taj task lamp….and what a fab light it is!

The designer piece is more like a contemporary sculpture than a table lamp, with its sleek, smooth, unjointed finish that gently curves up and over. It’s a great option if you’re looking for something different, that will double up as a form of art, to light up your room.

With its LED technology, the lamp provides an ample source of light for use on a desk or side table and it certainly beats the usual style of desk lamps hands down.

The Kartell Taj task lamp is available from John Lewis.

What mood are you in today? With this unusual Philips light, you can change your home lighting to reflect whatever mood you happen to be in.

The LivingColours Bloom mood light will bathe your room in the colours of your choice. Whether you want bright and invigorating shades, or soft soothing pastel hues, there’s a colour to suit you.

A simple remote control allows you to select the colour you fancy, then dim or adjust it to the right intensity. Plus, there are settings to save your three favourite colours to memory for quick recall purposes.

If you fancy being illuminated in colour, then John Lewis have the white lamp in stock for £60.

It’s a similar idea to the KOH Concepts lamp that we reviewed recently, but the main difference with the Philips mood light is that you can change the colour as you please, rather than being stuck with just one lighting colour.

What do you think of these colour lamps? Is coloured lighting the way to go, or would you rather just stick to your usual lamp bulb? Do let us know in the comments below.

Fresh design doesn’t have to involve new components. In fact, we’re always on the lookout for funky new designs involving recycling and up cycling.

These lovely drum lamps are a perfect example of this. They’re made by designer Willem Heeffer and have been constructed from old washing machine drums. His goal is to use locally sourced and recycled materials and transform them into products that are totally different from their past.

That’s certainly been achieved with these lamps, which are vastly different from their humble beginnings.

The lamps are available in a variety of powder coated colours, including pink, slate and blue. You can find out more, plus ordering information, on Willem’s website.

As far as contemporary, funky and modern lighting goes, the KOH lamp ticks all the boxes.

This unusual lamp provides a glowing colour of light in a form that is contemporary in design and unusual in function.

The KOH lamp was designed by Christophe d’Orey, who was inspired to create the concept after a trip to an African village. At night, the villagers gathered around a campfire, putting bulbs inside coloured containers to create atmospheric lighting.

His KOH lamp also uses a basic item – in this case a simple plastic water container (rather reminiscent of a petrol or jerry can) – to create a funky modern light. The container is made from coloured plastic and when a special light bulb is placed inside and turned on, it glows beautifully.

The KOH lamp is available in eight different colours – orange, green, magenta, purple, lime green, lagoon, bamboo green or blue – and comes boxed with easy-to-follow instructions for putting it together.

One of main benefits of the lamp is that it’s incredibly lightweight, which means that moving it around is very easy. The light it emits isn’t bright, so it’s not the most ideal lamp to use as a bedside light, for example. However, it is perfect for creating atmospheric lighting in a room and the colourful glow of the orange lamp was calming and soothing.

It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing lamp – realistically, it does look like a petrol can – but depending on the design of a room, it could easily be used in a corner of a contemporary or modern living room. However, we particularly liked the idea of using it outside. For garden lighting it is ideal, as you can easily carry the lamp out and the electrical cable is long enough to stretch to a plug in point.

For barbecues, outside dining or simply enjoying a glass of wine in your garden in the evening, this lamp provides just the right amount of soft light. For more impact, you could use more of the lamps grouped together or arranged in rows, or for a lively party, mix together a number of different coloured lamps.

The KOH lamp costs $150 from KOH Concepts, and has free shipping to the UK.

Navy in name, but not in colour, this well designed tripod style floor lamp will provide essential lighting and style to a contemporary home.

The lamp gets its name from its nautical inspiration and its seafaring tripod structure. The shiny metal chrome detailing contrasts well with the natural wooden legs of the lamp, and its finished with a neutral white lamp shade.

From our point of view, one of the best features of this design is that its height adjustable, so you can raise or lower the legs (just like an actual tripod) and set the height of the shade at the exact position you require.

For such a functional and fresh lighting design, the Navy floor lamp is available for a super fantastic price – just £79 (instead of the typical high street price of £237) from Made.com.