Lighting guide
RGB or warm white? Choosing the right bulb for your lamp
Every lamp we make now ships with a choice: a warm white bulb, or an RGB bulb that cycles through sixteen colours from a small remote. Here's an honest read on which one belongs in which room — including the rooms where we'd talk you out of the colourful option.
What an RGB bulb actually does
RGB stands for red, green, blue — three sets of tiny LEDs inside one bulb, mixed in different proportions to produce colour. The bulbs we fit give you sixteen preset colours plus a plain white, switched from a credit-card-sized remote: solid colours, a flash mode, a slow fade, and brightness steps. It screws into the same standard E27 socket as any of our lamps, so nothing about the lamp itself changes — only the light it throws.
The honest limitation: an RGB bulb's white is not as pleasant as a dedicated warm white bulb's. Mixing colour channels into white tends to land slightly cooler and flatter than the 2700 K glow we set our standard bulbs to. If you'd mostly use the white setting, buy the warm white bulb — it does that one job better.
Where colour light earns its place
- Children's rooms. A lamp that turns soft blue or green at bedtime is a genuinely useful ritual — kids get a "their colour" nightlight, and the low brightness steps are gentler than a main light left on.
- Behind the TV or desk setup. A low colour glow behind a screen softens the contrast between a bright panel and a dark wall. This is the one place colour arguably beats warm white outright.
- Hosting. A living room that shifts amber or deep red for an evening changes the mood of a gathering in a way no playlist manages alone. The fade mode is better than it sounds — slow enough that people notice the room, not the lamp.
- A second lamp. If a room already has a warm lamp doing the everyday work, an RGB piece in the corner is pure play — the low-stakes place to enjoy colour without living under it.
Where warm white still wins
Reading, winding down, dinner, and any light you'll live with daily. Warm 2700 K light is what the brain reads as "evening, slow down" — we wrote about why inwarm light vs cool light. Coloured light is a mood; warm light is a habit. If the lamp is going on your bedside table or next to your reading chair and it's the only lamp in the room, choose warm white and don't look back.
A simple way to decide
Ask one question: is this lamp for doing something, or for feeling something? Task and wind-down lamps — bedside, reading corner, dining sideboard — want warm white. Atmosphere lamps — the corner piece, the TV companion, the kids' nightlight, the hosting lamp — are where the RGB option is worth its extra KSh 1,000. And because the socket is standard, you can always buy the other bulb later; nothing about the choice is permanent.
How to order it
Every lamp page inthe collectionnow has a bulb selector — pick "Normal (warm white)" or "RGB — 16 colours + remote" before adding to your bag. The RGB option adds KSh 1,000 and includes the remote in the box. Sculptural pieces with open or textured shades wear colour especially well:Silothrows colour through its slats,Brumaturns it into haze, andNgomaglows like a lantern.