Craft lights and art lamps
Colours wrong by lamplight?
See them as they really are.
Pick a colour at ten at night and it is the colour you meant, under a Serious craft light that rebuilds the full spectrum of daylight with 98% colour accuracy. You see every fine detail too, with up to 12x more light on your work than a 60W bulb.
Pick a colour at ten at night and it is the colour you meant, under a Serious craft light that rebuilds the full spectrum of daylight.
Alex Pratt OBE | Founder
Or call free on 0800 032 9364, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm
Your colours and fine detail are clear the moment you switch on.
When colours get harder to judge and fine detail starts to blur after dark, most people put it down to their eyes, and paint or craft a little less each year without ever deciding to. All sight is light, and after forty years we can tell you it is usually the light. These are three of the changes owners tell us about.
You can see the finest detail again.
Tiny parts, fine brushwork and small lettering are clear at working distance, and on the HD Original and HD Pro you narrow the beam for the finest work.
Colours look as rich at night as they do by day.
Every Serious Light rebuilds the full spectrum of daylight with 98% colour accuracy, so you can tell close shades apart, and a colour you mix at night still matches in the morning.
You can craft for as long as you want.
Dim it to suit your eyes, so they stay comfortable for longer, and it comes back at that level next time. The arm holds where you put it and is guaranteed for life.
The Serious Readers story
I built the first HD Light for my mum.
By 1988 we were already making lights for production lines and laboratories, and then my mum began losing her sight to macular degeneration. I built her the first High Definition home reading light so she could carry on reading, and stay independent.
Every light on this page descends from hers. You do not build a cheap lamp for your mum; you build the best one you can, and then you spend forty years making it better. That is still the rule for every light we make, and it is why we take the colour and detail in your work more seriously than anyone.
This is the difference a daylight craft lamp makes.
An ordinary bulb only looks white. It leaves gaps across the spectrum, so colours look flat and your eyes work to fill them in. We call that junk light. Daylight has no gaps, and Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds it with 98% colour accuracy, flicker-free, which is what makes a daylight lamp for crafting different from a stronger bulb.
An ordinary bulb only looks white. It leaves gaps across the spectrum, and your eyes work to fill them in. Daylight has no gaps. Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds it with 98% colour accuracy, flicker-free.
Customers living with AMD and cataracts tell us print looks sharper and higher in contrast under one. The home trial lets you check that against your own eyes.
Choose my craft lampBuilt to be the best we can make.
If you want the cheapest lamp, a Serious Light is not for you. It is a reliable tool for people who want the best light.
Serious Lights have been chosen for operating theatres, the British Museum and the Heathrow control tower, where fine detail and true colour matter. A warranty is only worth the company standing behind it, and ours has been building and repairing these lights for forty years. In 2025/26 alone we repaired or upgraded 1,350 of them.
A five-year warranty on the light, with a replaceable light engine inside it.
A lifetime warranty on the arm. The flexible arm holds wherever you bend it, for good.
The HD Original and HD Essential are hand-built in Aylesbury, around fifty a day. When something goes wrong, we repair it or we replace it.
▶ See how the light works
Make your craft table the best-lit place in your home.
If you paint, draw, build models or craft most evenings, we built Serious Lights for you, to put the clarity of daylight right over your work. Most people choose the HD Original, as a floor light or a table light.
If you paint, draw or craft most evenings, we built Serious Lights for you. Most people choose the HD Original, as a floor or a table light.
HD Original
This is the light we recommend: everything we have learned in forty years, in one light. Shape the beam to fit your work, dim it to the level that suits your eyes, and both are just as you left them at your next switch-on, so the light is already right when you sit down.
This is the light we recommend. Shape the beam, set your level, and both are just as you left them at your next switch-on.
Perfect for painting, drawing and craft work in the evening.
From about 19p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 90-day home trialAbout 16p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 90-day home trialTry it at home for 90 days
5-year warranty with a lifetime on the arm
Free delivery, and it arrives fully built
Arrives fully built, ready to use
UK delivery by DHL, £12.95
Hand-built in Great Britain
Quote at checkout or on the phone
Learn more about this light
Floor light specifications
Heavyweight (most popular): 152cm, 6kg, 23cm base.
Lightweight: 144cm, 3kg, 20cm base.
3,600 to 7,200 lux at 50cm depending on beam width. 98% CRI, 4,000K, 630 lumens. Flicker-free.
Replaceable light engine, 5-year guarantee, lifetime guarantee on the arm. 7.2 watts, pennies a week to run.
Table light specifications
Heavyweight: 71cm, 4.5kg, 20cm base.
Lightweight: 68cm, 2.2kg, 18cm base.
3,600 to 7,200 lux at 50cm depending on beam width. 98% CRI, 4,000K, 630 lumens. Flicker-free.
Replaceable light engine, 5-year guarantee, lifetime guarantee on the arm. 7.2 watts, pennies a week to run.
See our other models, or let us help you choose.
HD Pro
You can change the brightness from a remote, or read anywhere in the room on its rechargeable battery, and add either when you order or later. You shape the beam to fit what you are doing.
You can dim it from a remote or go cordless and read in any room, added when you order or later.
Perfect if you want a portable craft light that runs cordless on its rechargeable battery.
From about 22p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 90-day home trialFrom about 19p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 90-day home trial90-day home trial
5-year warranty with a lifetime on the arm
Free delivery
UK delivery by DHL, £12.95
Quote at checkout or on the phone
Click to view specifications
152cm, 4.8kg. Quick-change cordless battery in the base, arm slots out for servicing. Optional carpet feet.
Replaceable light engine, 5-year guarantee, lifetime guarantee on the arm. 7.2 watts, pennies a week to run.
HD Essential
It lights your whole table evenly with full Serious daylight, and it is the simplest of the three, with a fixed wide beam and a press-and-hold dimmer.
Fine detail is easy to see, with a fixed wide beam and a press-and-hold dimmer. You switch it on, sit down and get on with your work.
Perfect for everyday crafts, hobbies and reading.
From about 16p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 30-day home trialFrom about 14p a night over the five-year warranty.
Start my 30-day home trial30-day home trial
5-year warranty with a lifetime on the arm
Free delivery
UK delivery by DHL, £12.95
Hand-built in Great Britain
Quote at checkout or on the phone
Click to view specifications
Heavyweight (most popular): 152cm, 6kg, 23cm base.
Lightweight: 144cm, 3kg, 20cm base.
Replaceable LED bulb rated for three years of life, under a 5-year warranty on the light and a lifetime warranty on the arm. 6 watts, pennies a week to run.
Click to view specifications
Heavyweight: 71cm, 4.5kg, 19cm base.
Lightweight: 68cm, 2.2kg, 18cm base.
Replaceable LED bulb rated for three years of life, under a 5-year warranty on the light and a lifetime warranty on the arm. 6 watts, pennies a week to run.
Not sure which one? Answer six quick questions.
Tell us what you make and where you work, and we will point you at the right light.
What will you use your light for?
Choose all that apply
How do your eyes feel right now?
Choose one
What frustrates you about your current light?
Choose all that apply
Will it stay put, or move around the house?
Choose one
Once you are settled, do you mind reaching up to adjust it?
Choose one
Where will your light live?
Choose one
For the way you work, we recommend
Not what you expected? Call free on 0800 032 9364 and an adviser will help you choose.
All sight is light, which is why your craft lamp matters.
Every moment of sight begins with light, and we have spent forty years on nothing else.
We have spent forty years on nothing but the light you work by.
Under an ordinary bulb, colours look flat and fine detail is hard to see.
It is not only about brightness. Most lamps use an ordinary bulb, which gives out only part of the daylight spectrum, so two close shades can look the same, fine lines blur and your eyes work harder to fill the gaps. That is junk light.
Read how the light works
Every shade and every fine line is clear under true daylight, indoors.
Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds the full spectrum of noon daylight with 98% colour accuracy, so every colour on your palette looks as it does by day, and contrast is clearer right down to the smallest part. See the independent research.
Aim the beam right where your hands are working.
The head swivels through 350 degrees to bring the beam over your work without your own shadow across it, slow-start technology fades it up gently, and every adjustment holds exactly where you set it.
Opticians say the right light matters as much as the right glasses.
More than 500 UK opticians recommend a Serious Light to their patients. These five say why.
Lighting has a huge impact on our ability to see. Serious Readers lights are well designed, simple to use, and provide accurate colour and detail representation.
Serious Reader Lights simulate strong natural daylight, relieving eye fatigue and improving reading. The range of styles, warranty and customer care means I recommend with confidence.
The clarity a Serious Readers lamp provides is second to none. Patients are amazed at the difference. Just like correct prescription glasses, the right lighting is so important.
Serious Lights are among the best I have come across. They provide natural, high quality light that improves comfort and clarity, easily adjusted to direct light exactly where needed.
The right light is as important as the right glasses. It reduces strain for close work, vital for anyone with cataracts or macular degeneration. Patients really appreciate the difference.
▶ Watch optometrist Tracey Taylor explain why.Watch an optometrist explain why.
Owners tell us what changed for them.
From more than 10,000 five-star reviews.
▶ Hear what owners have to say.
“Not cheap but well worth the quality of life you get from these lights. My eyesight is too precious to waste time with inferior lighting.”
Mrs Thoday, Market Rasen
“When I first looked at your lights I thought they were expensive but when you look at the quality, the old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is true.”
Mr Robotham, Lincs
“Just a note to say how very pleased I am with my HD Essential Table Light. It has made such a difference.”
Mrs Lillie, Cruden Bay
Household names and professionals read and work by Serious Lights.
Household names read their scripts and manuscripts by it. Lifeboat crews, air traffic controllers and telescope engineers work under it, and The Repair Shop films its close work under one.
The Serious Light that arrives at your door carries the same engineering.
Why Stanley Gibbons rely on Serious Lights.
Watch George James catch two fakes.Head of Philately, Stanley Gibbons
Get the answers you need before you order.
Here are the questions people ask us most.
Which is the best craft lamp or hobby light?
For most people the best craft lamp here is the HD Original, and it is the one most of our customers choose. It shapes the beam, dims without steps and keeps both settings for next time, which covers almost everything you will do under it, from model making to watercolour.
Pick the HD Pro instead if you want the remote, or a rechargeable battery that makes it portable, and the HD Essential if you want the simplest of the three, with a fixed wide beam. All three are true daylight lamps carrying the same spectrum; what changes is how much control you get over it.
What makes these different from an ordinary lamp?
Two things separate a good craft light from an ordinary lamp. The light itself: Daylight Wavelength Technology™ rebuilds natural daylight to 98% colour accuracy, which an ordinary bulb cannot manage at any brightness.
And the engineering that delivers it: a beam you aim over your work and dim to suit your eyes. Colours stay true and fine detail stays sharp, however small the work. With the home trial, you can work under the lamp you use now and under a Serious Light in turn, and decide which you prefer.
Is it a good artist lamp for painting?
Yes. Colour is the hardest thing to judge under an ordinary bulb, because it is missing part of the spectrum. A Serious Light rebuilds the full spectrum of daylight with 98% colour accuracy, so you can judge colour and tone at night in oils, watercolour, pastel or coloured pencil, just as you would by day.
As a floor light it stands beside your easel, and as a table light it sits on your desk or drawing board, so you can paint and draw by daylight wherever you work. There is more on choosing one on the lights for artwork page.
How bright is it, in numbers?
Measured at 50cm, the HD Original gives you up to 12x more light on your work than a 60W bulb: between 3,600 and 7,200 lux, depending on the beam. Narrow the beam for the finest detail and the light concentrates to 7,200 lux; spread it wide across your table and it holds 3,600. Colour accuracy is 98% CRI, which is why colours stay true.
The HD Pro reaches the same 7,200 lux, and the HD Essential gives 4,800 lux across its fixed wide beam, which is 8x more light on your work than a 60W bulb. The HD Original's light engine is flicker-free and dims without steps, so you have strong light for the finest detail and you turn it down for everything else.
The only real test is to try one at home while you do the things you love. You have up to 90 days, and if it is not for you, we collect it free from any UK mainland address and refund you.
Start my 90-day home trialMore questions
Should I choose a floor standing craft light or a table light?
It depends on where you work. A floor light stands beside your easel or craft table and brings the light down over your work, and it takes up no table space, which helps in a small craft room.
If you work at a desk or a work table, a table light does the same job from a lower start. Both carry the same daylight, so choose by where you work.
Which crafts and hobbies is it good for?
It suits any craft where colour and fine detail decide how your work turns out, from card making and scrapbooking to beading, jewellery making, model making, miniature painting, calligraphy and drawing.
If your work moves from room to room, the HD Pro can run without a cable, so it goes wherever your project is. There is more on the craft lighting page.
How do the lights compare?
Every light here carries the same Daylight Wavelength Technology™ and the same 5-year warranty. What changes is the control you get over the beam: how you shape it, dim it and direct it. Here are the three side by side.
Most popular
HD Original
The light most people choose
|
HD Pro
The most advanced of the three
|
HD Essential
Daylight made simple
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | All-round use | Cordless and remote | Plain and simple |
| Finishes | Black or Heritage White | Black only | Black or Heritage White |
| Beam | Adjustable, shapeable | Adjustable, shapeable | Wide, even, fixed |
| Dimming | Stepless with memory | Stepless with memory | Press-and-hold, with memory |
| Remote & cordless | No. | Yes, optional | No. |
| Home trial | 90 days | 90 days | 30 days |
| Warranty | 5 years, lifetime arm | 5 years, lifetime arm | 5 years, lifetime arm |
| Table light price | From £299.99 | From £349.99 | From £249.99 |
| Floor light price | From £349.99 | From £399.99 | From £299.99 |
| Start my 90-day trial | Start my 90-day trial | Start my 30-day trial |
HD Original
The light most people choose
HD Pro
The most advanced of the three
HD Essential
Daylight made simple
What bulb does it take, and what does it cost to run?
All three craft lights here run on LED, which is why a lamp this bright costs pennies a week. The HD Original and HD Pro use a replaceable light engine rather than a bulb, and the HD Essential takes a replaceable LED bulb.
A bright craft lamp built this way runs cool enough to sit beside you all evening, and you are not up a stepladder changing a bulb every year.
Why do they cost more than an ordinary lamp?
In a high-quality craft light you pay for the daylight spectrum, an arm and dimming that hold where you set them, a five-year warranty on the light and a lifetime warranty on the arm, and a forty-year-old company standing behind both. Most lamps are built down to a price, and we build Serious Lights to be repaired rather than thrown away. With the home trial, you can judge it at home, and if it is not for you, we collect it and refund you in full.
Why are colours harder to judge in the evening?
By a window in daylight you see the full spectrum, so colours look as they really are. An ordinary lamp is missing part of that spectrum, so after dark colours look duller, close shades are harder to tell apart, and matching paint, paper or beads turns into guesswork.
A Serious Light rebuilds daylight indoors, so the colours you choose on a dark evening look the way they do by a window in June.
Will it help with macular degeneration or cataracts?
Serious Lights are not medical devices. What they do is put far more usable light on your work.
Customers living with AMD, cataracts and poor eyesight tell us print looks sharper and higher in contrast under one. The home trial lets you find out with your own eyes.
How long does delivery take?
UK delivery is by DHL tracked courier and usually takes two to three working days. It is free with your code.It costs £12.95.
The Original and Essential arrive fully built, and the Pro's arm simply slots into its base. Either way, you plug it in and use it the same evening.
See every colour and detail after dark.
You can judge it at your own craft table, in the evenings when you would use it most.
Quote code at checkout.
Start my 90-day home trialTry it at home for up to 90 days. If it is not for you, we collect it free from any UK mainland address and refund you in full.
Or call free on 0800 032 9364, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm.