Disclosure: I bought everything in this post with my own money. This post isn’t sponsored by IKEA, TP-Link or anyone else. It may contain affiliate links; if you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions here are my own, based on actual use.
I’ve been a homeowner for about ten years, and I’ll be honest: lighting was never something I spent much time thinking about. Sure, I thought about mood. Warm light for the bedroom, daylight for the study, cool white where I needed to see what I was doing. But brightness? The old me just bought the brightest bulb on the shelf and called it a day.
Our firstborn changed a bit of that. Our newborn changed a whole lot of that.
This is the first post in my newborn series, and I’m starting with something I never expected to care about: getting a proper baby night light setup in our master bedroom. No fancy renovation, no electrician. Just a couple of lamps, the right bulbs, and a little bit of smart home help.
[Image: The full bedroom setup at night]
Where It Started: The Xiaomi Yeelight Bedside Lamp
Before kids, we had a Xiaomi Yeelight Bedside Lamp. I honestly can’t remember if it was the Gen 1 or Gen 2. For a couple in a standard HDB master bedroom, it was more than adequate. Reading before bed, a bit of warm light to wind down, done.
Then a tiny human moved in and “adequate” stopped being the right benchmark.
Kid #1: The IKEA Sambord Floor Lamp
With our firstborn, I quickly realised I needed something way less harsh. Not a lamp pointed at your face, but something that gives the room a dim glow so you can move around without waking anyone up (yourself included).
That brought us to the IKEA Sambord, an affordable floor/reading lamp with a GU10 fitting and a bendy gooseneck, so you can point the light wherever you want it.