5 of the best designer lightbulbs

Standard CFL energy-saving light bulbs can really spoil the look of your living room, so we've tracked down a few alternatives that really raise the bar in the design stakes.

Alessilux
€43, foreverlamp.eu
Under the wing of legendary Italian design house Alessi, a group of young designers has created a variety of new low energy bulbs, ranging from Art Deco-inspired units to ones like these that you probably wouldn't find gracing the ceiling in your local Apple store...

Plumen 001
£20, plumen.com
Why should all those tubes just go straight up and down? The Plumen 001 unravels the standard CFL bulb into a form that's somewhere between a melted bulb and the dough hook on your Kenwood Chef mixer.

Colour Changing LED Lightbulb
£24.99, firebox.com
Okay, so this may be the classic light bulb shape, but it's also a light bulb with a REMOTE CONTROL. Switch colours in an instant to perk you up or match your mood as a warning to others. Sting could have solved all his problems by buying Roxanne one of these.

Lamp/Lamp
$40, gnr8.biz
If you want to confound your guests and infuriate your electrician why not invest in some double-ended light bulbs designed by Hironao Tsuboi that look like they're magically stuck to the sockets. We're still not game to touch the exposed end, though.

Light blubs
piekebergmans.com
These giant, saggy light bulbs are the work of designer Pieke Bergmans. Made of crystal, these giant bulbs are hand blown and left to droop over a variety of objects, looking magically surreal like Dali's desk lamp.

Also
5 of the best robot pets
5 of the best Skype alternatives
5 of the best movie-making apps
5 of the best Android apps
5 of the best geek umbrellas