Any ideas for NOT ugly grow lights for house plants?

winter gets super dark here, and it is the less than an hour of sunlight a week that seems to bother the indoor plants. Even low light plants struggle and die.

I want to get some lighting but it is all so ugly!

I need inspiration for indoor lighting for houseplants.

It might not be cost effective depending on how many plants / how much space you need light for, but you could look into white grow light bulbs and anything that accepts a light bulb, since those have a lot more possibilities for style/customization than hanging lights do.

Oh... white light grow bulb.  I've only seen the purple light ones.  

Maybe a floor lamp with a grow bulb?  But my floor lamp is in use in the winter... I see a trip to the second hand shop in my future.

Or use shop light but build them a little cabinet so you can't actually see them. Like you get at the top of a fishtank.

I have placed a space blanket tent around some 4 x 6 ft shelves.  I have led grow lights inside that.  I cover the whole thing with other material ... such as a blanket ....for cat protection.  It serves to start seeds and be a salad garden all summer.

To head off the obvious question, while I am tied into the grid, I also have over 2000 watts in solar panels.

I want to keep the plants on a table where I can admire them.  Cabinets are great if I had a lot of plants or growing seriously.  For me, these plants are a decorative addition to the room, so I want the things that help grow plants to be decorative or unobtrusive.  

For last winter, I used this set-up.



solar panel with battery could keep the grow light going for a week on one charge.  BUT... since we can go months without direct sunlight, solar energy isn't great in our climate.  

This worked well when there was only one plant.  I've got 12 to try to bring through the winter this year.  

also, that lamp is pretty ugly.  I don't like the way it clamps to the table.  

Not exactly pretty, but....

The purple light really bothered my wife and myself, so we added a second amber or green bulb to help "whiten" the light in the room. In her large light system, it was more cost and power efficient to do that vs. using full spectrum white grow bulbs.  They say plants need a little of the green light spectrum to flower while they are fine with the red and blue for vegetative growth.

I used the GE LED white grow light mentioned previously in the thread. To me, it still seemed to give off a pinkish hue, but not bad, it was livable. All in all, it's a good bulb for the price and seemed sufficient. It made my fig break dormancy in January and I got to enjoy sights of growth when most appreciated ;) Funny thing tho ...I was in a pinch for time and money last fall and ended up putting the bulb in a brooder lamp which I hung from the ceiling. Not exactly the best aesthetics, but cheap and effective... might be a "you know you're a permie type thing" ;) It was hung over a table and I found the light to be fine for writing, reading, eating etc. It wasn't too harsh like some LEDs can be. Because the plants where near a south window, I put the light on a timer with dual settings and used it for a few hours in the morning and evening during the winter months. I only kept a few plants under it. The fig was the largest. I also set my plants on stands to elevate them and put them closer to the light. The fig was about 6 inches away from the bulb.

One thing to remember with most grow bulbs like this, is they are wide (flood type) and need a wide lamp holder.
I have found GE 60 watt incandescent plant light bulbs locally, which will fit into a normal socket of most lamps. I plan to try this next with the secondhand lamps I found (table top and floor stand with goose neck). The downside, is this type of plant lighting is more like a spotlight verses the slightly wider reach that is possible with a flood light, but it's a little more aesthetically pleasing and affordable.

I still drool over the Soltech Solutions Aspect light.
https://www.soltechsolutions.com/product/aspect-plant-light/

I also really like what Modern Sprout offers, especially the growframes and the growbar which can be mounted in a bookcase and not appear too obtrusive.
https://store.modsprout.com/collections/grow-lights

I think indoor plant lighting has come a long way these days.
Hope this offers some inspiration :)

Regular LED bulbs in a lamp work, I’ve been using it for years. Find a pretty lamp you like and put one (or two) in and you’re done! You want the bulbs to be at least 5000K and 1600 lumens, and “daylight” color tone.
If I could figure out how to post pictures on here I can put up pics of some bulbs I use...

Figured it out...

I see you are at pretty high latitude, but I figure solar tubes should get a mention in this thread, I just wish they were cheaper...

Build a glass block enclosure and hide high intensity grow lights inside the enclosure. The lights will illuminate the glass blocks but you wont see the light fixtures. It will radiate heat in winter as well...

I use Barrina LED lights, they are amazing! Bought some pink ones a few years ago, and will be getting some white ones to add to my set up this year. My mother took over several of my grandmother's plants after she passed away, and her aunt has been added more to the collection over the years since. Being in New England, her apartment is terrible for lighting in the winter, and a number of the plants were seriously struggling last year. I attached one of my lights to a shelf for her, and all the struggling plants were thriving by spring!

This year she nearly killed one of the plants her aunt gave her, by taking too many cuttings, and trying to propagate it. When she gave it to me to save, it was two scraggily sticks, with a few shriveled leaves left on it. Putting it under a grow light for about five hours a day, and leaving it near a heating pad that I'm overwintering some strawberry plants on, her plant now has four new sets of leaves growing!

I can't rattle off the technicals about them, but bought 'em off of Amazon. They're tube shaped, starting at 1 foot, and also come in 2', 4', and 8' sizes. The ones I have are two feet in length, and I attach them to my three foot shelves. I put one in the back, to the left side, and one in the front, to the right, or vice versa, then surround the shelves with Mylar "emergency blankets". Since I started using LED lights, I have to start my seeds later in the season. Plants do so well under these light, if I start them too soon, I end up trying to move a forest around while bring them outside to harden off in the spring.

When there is not enough light, we may be able to concentrate the bit of light that is there, with some way to reflectorize the light, perhaps by creating a temporary cabinet around the plant with foil or mirrors that would concentrate the light on the plant. The advantage is that when the apparatus is hidden, I will not care if it is ugly. The primary concern should be does it work? I can make my peace with the ugliness later.

https://youtu.be/8JrqH2oOTK4

I've fantasized about making these types of lights for the purpose of indoor grow lights. They are gentle, yet powerful such that your eyes can rest upon them and it can illuminate a room. I can't help but think that plants would thrive under such a light.

David N Black wrote:I see you are at pretty high latitude, but I figure solar tubes should get a mention in this thread, I just wish they were cheaper...

I used to be a residential energy auditor.  So I know a little about this issue.  That said I wouldn't call myself an expert.

Light tubes, AKA light tunnels, AKA mirror tubes are great for reducing or eliminating the need for artificial light inside on sunny days.  Their downside for this application is - they bring in only the amount of light that hits that part of the roof.  Therefore I wouldn't see them as bringing enough light for growing plants.

Nathaniel Swasey wrote:https://youtu.be/8JrqH2oOTK4

I've fantasized about making these types of lights for the purpose of indoor grow lights. They are gentle, yet powerful such that your eyes can rest upon them and it can illuminate a room. I can't help but think that plants would thrive under such a light.

Certainly: There are a number of plants that do well with indirect light. They would make great candidates for the experiment.
I'm a bit fuzzy on the LEDs sold as a strip and how to hook them up but the light given was impressive. Plus think of all these TVs and monitors to which we could give a new life!

If you're handy, just modify the design used right there at Paul's place for the long light fixture over the long table (in the educational area?)  Use appropriate bulbs for plant growth, find  a cool looking slab o' wood, buy or recycle some wiring, plug & cord, and build away!

Hi Raven  I use the afore mentioned barina lights in my green space for germination and growing on til planting. this year i tore apart a comfrey plant and ended up with 25 pots of comfrey. some are directly under the lamps a few inches from the plant and i keep raising them up as they grow. however i have one big pot on the floor that is at least 4' from the light and not even direct and still growing like the "weed" it is. said that to say,  you probably don't need them down at eye level where they would likely be annoying, just above your plants, because your plants are already established. so it can be high enough that it's just another light, maybe a bit lower, from the ceiling.  now my lights  are suspended by the ugliest baling twine i could find, but these lights are not heavy at all and you could use a very, very fine wire so that if they were suspended from the ceiling would almost look like they were floating, plus the height would be adjustable. the lamps themselves are not homes and gardens decorator material but might be, for some one with even the slightest bit of artistic skill, embellished to be somewhat esthetically pleasing. i have no light in my green space except for these lights and they are more than enough to work by. i have white lights and some with a slightly yellowish light, i would not recommend the yellowish for the home, unless you like that type of home lighting. the one draw back to these lights, for maybe your situation is the cord to plug it in, it's not super long and depending on how high you have it and plug location you might need an extension cord, suspended low enough that might not be an issue. I have included a link to the purple light  so you could see with better definition the size and shape of the louvers used to deflect the light down. they are not huge and gaudy. maybe you could even make them prettyish. otherwise go with the white glow bulbs that go in a lamp. i got mine from 'west coast seeds' but it's likely you have outfits out there( i'm assuming your looking at canada from the top of the world and so the atlantic is on the left, otherwise check out west coast seeds)that sell similar stuff. or you could use one of the other excellent ideas mentioned so far
https://www.amazon.ca/Barrina-Spectrum-V-Shape-Reflector-Linkable/dp/B07QWV1THV/ref=sr_1_9?gclid=CjwKCAiAxP2eBhBiEiwA5puhNfdflP0B4vLZnFCOwRppTPCIdvU0zY4wimG3_UCvLohp0Mr9LHqJahoCVywQAvD_BwE&hvadid=604611591286&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=20114&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=5729366835110593518&hvtargid=kwd-1068393401737&hydadcr=14248_13438565&keywords=barrina+lights+amazon&qid=1675663925&sr=8-9
cheers   james