A slim walnut backplate, 5 cm wide and 17 tall, with a 12 cm travertine tube mounted on a ball joint near the top and a small brass push button set into the wood below it. The tube swings through most of a hemisphere, so the beam goes wherever you point it.
A button rather than a cord. It sits flush in the walnut, it makes a proper click, and there is nothing dangling next to the bed. If a pull cord feels like a hotel to you, this is the same idea solved the other way.
Where it earns its place
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Bedside pairs. The narrow plate takes up less wall than any other switched fitting here, which matters when the bed is close to a corner.
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Bunk beds and children's rooms. A button is easier for small hands than a cord, and there is nothing to swing on.
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Beside a desk. Aim it at the paper and away from the screen, and switch it independently of the room.
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Narrow returns and alcoves. Five centimetres wide will fit where a round plate will not.
Real stone, so no two are the same
The spot is a small turned tube, so you see the banding wrap it in a tight spiral. Every one differs, and because the piece moves you will see a different face of it depending on where you have aimed it. The walnut plate has its own grain running vertically.
Fitting it
Hard wired, and it needs a qualified electrician. The plate is 17 cm tall and only 5 wide, so mark a vertical centre line and check it with a level before drilling. Beside a bed, mount the top of the plate around 115 cm off the floor, which puts the button at a comfortable reach and the spot above shoulder height when you are sitting up. Confirm which side the switch falls on before you order a pair.