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my apartment has few lights. I could get lamps, but I find that annoying, having to walk to the lamp, I like the switch right at the door. Plus, lamps aren't very bright.
Are there any sort of lights that are like light fixture - they look decent and take normal bulbs - but that you mount onto the ceiling as though they were hard-wired lights, and then you just tape the wire to the ceiling and run it along to down the wall and into the outlet/receptacle? And then you do the same with the switch but mount that on the wall
The closest thing I can picture to what you are describing is a hanging lamp (ask at your local lighting / home improvement store) that plugs in with a twist - style switch in the cord. I don't know how you would put a switch on the wall with that type of lamp...
What you need it the clapper. These are devices that attach to lights and you clap your hands together and they turn on. Put a 100 watt bulb in your light and its gonna be pretty bright.
You can also get sensors that turn on when you exit. But the clapper is pretty good, and rather cheap. My son had several for his rooms.
leviton makes a nice controller that is wireless and will control lots of things with either a hand held remote or a tabletop controller.
the sytem can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it .
if you call leviton and ask for technical they will guide you with the best way to set up your system for what you want to control. you can even have your heat activated remotely from a remote computer or phone .
You can use a wall-socket for any ceiling fixture, I think. That's how they attached the lights in the old days. There was decorative chain around the cord and it plugged into the wall. There was a bracket on the ceiling w/ no wiring behind it. I believe these may also have been used for fixtures that held candles.
You can do the following (which I do not recommend unless you own the property or get permission from the landlord and have a professional do the installation):
1. Mount a bracket to a stud in the ceiling if one does not exist.
2. Buy the ceiling light fixture that's not too heavy.
3. Buy a plug-in cord from the hardware store. It has plugs at one end and wires at the other.
4. Buy electrical tape.
5. Buy extra long chain.
Then to put it together, you attach the cord (3) to the wires from the light fixture and secure with electrical tape. I am going to assume you know about positive and ground etc. Or the fixture comes with instructions for attaching to a regular outlet instead of hardwiring. If you have no clue...contact an electrician. You attach the chain to cover the wire from the top of the fixture to about where the plug is. This is decorative.
You then hang the fixture from the ceiling using a screw, or by hanging the chain from the hook. You can plug the fixture into the wall afterwards. A lot of chandeliers come w/ extra hooks so you can swag the chain over to the wall similar to the photos:
When I bought my wall sconces for the bedroom I added my own plugs. I bought 2 extension cords, cut off the end of them, scraped some of the plastic off to expose the wires and attached it to the wires in the light, capped them off and plugged them in. Its been 6 years and they're still working fine.
Some stores sell plastic cord covers that will keep the cord straight and make it less of an eyesore. You might want to look into them if you plan on running it along the ceiling.
Came here to say this. I've used X10 for over a decade now. It's simple, cheap, and effective. If you're hooking any non-incandescent lights (such as CFLs or LEDs) into a module, be sure to plug more than two in there. Those appliance modules sometimes turn themselves on form the low current draw of those style lights.
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