Shopping for furniture can be both rewarding and frustrating. Rewarding in that each piece of furniture added makes your home feel more personalized; frustrating because of all of the different variables and hurdles experienced while looking for that one piece to complete what you may have "envisioned". A few days ago, I took delivery of a Chameledeon LED Floor Lamp via Design Within Reach. The Chameledeon, designed by Joerg Schieber, may look like your generic tubular floor lamp but offers a little more than meets the eye.

Design Within Reach delivers a 55 in. Chameledeon

Unfortunately, the Chameledeon is somewhat difficult to get ahold of in the US. Fortunately, Design Within Reach (DWR) studios and their impeccably friendly / helpful staff make it quite easy to track down unique home pieces.

Offered in three different heights – 28 in., 40 in., and 55 in. – the Chameledeon arrived in a cardboard tube which was a little on the tight side. Packaged within was a translucent white shade, a heavy metal base, a 10,000 hr. LED unit, and a programmed remote control. To my dismay, the tightly packaged Chameledeon did not escape damage. The translucent shade was cracked in various places undoubtedly caused by the tightly packaged lamp having been tossed, dropped, or thrown in the back of a FedEx truck. A quick call to a local DWR studio sorted out the entire problem of the damaged shade.

One more remote to add to the collection

One of the more entertaining aspects of the lamp – on top of the touted 10,000 hr. burn life of the LED unit – is the 16 color programmable mode. With remote in hand, living room inhabitants can easily entertain themselves with the included remote changing the hue of the LED glow with 16 different colors. Additionally, the lamp can alternate between solid, strobe, or transitional color changes.

Keep this in the corner for "looks"

Although the Chameledeon may look great in a variety of different living room or bedroom settings, the reality is that the light emitted from the lamp is not quite enough to illuminate even a medium sized room (350 sq. ft.). Rather than providing ample light to work comfortably in a room after hours, the lamp merely blankets the room in a softly colored glow. Keep this lamp around when entertaining guests – lounging and talking. Keep an alternative floor lamp close at hand for true functionality.