See?  Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! 

batsbrew

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put a soft LED or cfl in it,
works very nice.
indirect light, off the ceiling....

That's what I use.  I have them in 3 corners of the room.

Hi,
 
I'm always in the "dark". I have a small lamp with a green light bulb on top of one monitor and a blue one on top of another monitor, and that's the only lighting I need.
 
The bright lights at work (for example) are horrible, and cause massive headaches for me, with the bad eyesight from the surgeries. I'm also very light sensitive, which doesn't help.

I bought NEXA-dimmers, the plug-in socket kind, so not only can I controll my lights with a remotecontroller; I can dim my lights down to relaxing levels and crank 'em up when I need to vacum or do some other mundane chore. IMO, best studio upgrade ever

If I could afford it, I would use the Philips Hue system.
 
These are basically diffuse 3-color LED lights that can make just about any color, not unlike the multi-color LEDs used for stage lighting but softly diffused.
 
What makes them so cool is that they can be remote-controlled over wi-fi with your smartphone. I've even thought about using them for stage lighting. But these things are expensive.

Lava lamps are fantastic - but so are Salt Rock lamps. Have a few of each and you'll have the perfect vibe...