Mushroom 5-Light Arc Lamp, Nickel

I wanted to love this lamp, I really did. There’s a lot of things I like about it – it looks really nice, the dimmer switch is a great feature, and it provides a really good amount of light. It’s very stylish and looks just like the photo. However, despite the simplicity of the design, it was VERY tough to put together because of either a design flaw or at least a defect in my particular lamp… the bolt coming out of the lamp “pole” at the bottom that you use to attach to the base is not long enough. It’s almost impossible to get the VERY heavy base screwed on securely as there’s not enough bolt left sticking out to get the nut all the way on. (The main pole of the lamp is in two sections – the multiple arms which you attach the bulbs and domes to, and the main pole that has a bolt protruding from the bottom that you screw into a hole in the base. The two parts of the pole go together easily and the lights are a cinch to attach to the arms, but the base is really hard to fit securely and the stone-like material chips easily if you aren’t careful and hit it with the metal pole. I managed to get it put together, but it leans a little / is noticeably canted. The extremely heavy base seems enough to keep it from tipping over, even though it leans, but I am very careful not to move it as I’m afraid the slightest rotation of the pole will cause it to separate from the base. For as much as I paid for it, I expected it to be better engineered. As is, it’s not worth returning because it does work (and I basically destroyed the box and styrofoam packaging getting it out) and I spent all the time and effort getting it put together, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. Also… I can’t imagine trying to put this together by yourself, you’ll want a friend to help you, just because it’s impossible to hold it steady and try to screw the base in at the same time without an extra set of hands.