We came across this picture on Emma’s blog and thought Brilliant! Floor lights suspended from the ceiling! It’s a play on one of our favorite themes: Using things in unexpected ways, turning them upside-down…

These flexible task lights have a wonderfully sculptural look and allow you to adjust the lighting to your…task: perfect over a workspace or kitchen island.

Finding a task light with an adjustable zig-zag stem should be easy enough. We’ve long been a fan of Ikea’s Antifoni desk lamp ($29.99) and floor standing model ($39.99), which use halogen bulbs for a bright clear light. They’re knock-offs of The Luxo light designed by Jac Jacobsen in 1937 ($179 and up at YLighting). Unfortunately that one only takes a 40W incandescent bulb – too dim for our money and a problem with a lot of great looking lighting: they’re designed to take only low or medium watt bulbs.

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The classic Tolomeo light (about $290) would make a wonderful ceiling lamp, and it takes up to a 100 watt bulb:

Remodelista recently featured these lights from Task in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which might be interesting on a lowish ceiling. (Turn your head or laptop sideways to see how it’ll look.)

Gauge the task light to your ceiling height: a floor light with its longer stem will need a higher ceiling…desk lights would work for lower ones.

Bolting the lights to the ceiling requires some creative hacking. We’re researching it now and will report our findings in a future post. We’d love to hear your ideas.