Your question is too general to generate helpful reponses. What kinds of fixtures are you looking for: floor lamps, sconces, chandeliers, halogen lighting, etc.?

While there are many good brands, in my opinion, light fixtures are one of the most over-priced products out there and you can really overspend if you stick with only namebrands. What you need to look for are two things: 1) an Underwiters Laboratory sticker (which means that the fixture meets safety standards), and 2) that a fixture looks like it's of adequate quality (Do the parts fit together well? Are metal parts of heavier gauge metal? Do finishes look rich or cheesey?) I have a wealthy friend who just remodeled and spent $10,000 on fixtures. I have no doubt I could have found equivalent fixtures for him for less than 1/10 of that amount. So...look for bargains, inspect the fixtures, and go with your gut.

If you want the best brands your talking Fine Art Lamps, Maitland and Smith and Savoy House, the Euro collection. Depends on what your looking for. I've done houses and had people spend 90k on just lighting or done and 8000sq house for 8k just depends what you want. FAL is the Gucci of the lighting world, however Kalco is a great iron brand, Savoy also makes nice stuff in the middle price. Maxim is one of the better low end brands. What Style?

hey bigdog, you sound like you know something about lighting!

We are doing complete reno and right now in search of black wrought iron outdoor wall mount lanterns, we need Fluorescent (in California) and searching for a frosted or very seedy glass (my husband doesn't like seeing the lightbulbs or direct light)

Love the Fine Art stuff...but nothing really black. Looked through Savoy and no luck also. Saw one that we liked through Minka Lavery, but quality wasn't as nice as Fine Art....Also liked one from Artistic Lighting, but it wasn't fluorescent.

I'll check out the Kalco, but if you have any other options, please feel free to throw them my way! Thanks.

Framburg, Hubbardton Forge, Hudson Valley for lights. And Casablanca for ceiling fans. Best value and the one I'd recommend is Elements Lighting, Golden is good, Jeremiah is good too.

In my opinion, some the best manufacturers are Flos and Artemide, I often check out their new models on Interior Deluxe. Casablanca are also very creative, but I prefer mostly contemporary lighting and don't like the retro designs.

We have 4 flush mount ceiling LED light fixtures from Costco . Costco will take them back if you don't like them for any reason. We tried one, loved it and went back for more. The LED light is perfect. Not too harsh, not yellow, and not too cold either. Try one in your space that you need and if you don't like it , take it back. We tried other ones from other lighting stores who let us try the fixtures and for the value these were the best for our needs. At one instance we had 3 different brands on at the same time to compare , yes we were that obsessed to get the lighting right for our needs. We have had the lights for many months now and very satisfied. hth :)

any updates on this post? what are high quality lighting brands to look for in the haystack that is online shopping?

"High quality" is a very vague term. There are many fixtures available that are equivalent in build, safety, appearance, and reliability, yet one can be priced at 10 times another that's similar. Often it's a matter of styling or perceived manufacturer reputation. You have to explain what it is you're looking for and what "high quality" means to you. I've bought light fixtures everywhere from Home Depot, to lighting stores, to exclusive Italian interior design galleries, and I've based my decisions on what the fixture looks like, what it's made out of, whether the construction is well-done and whether the price to value ratio is reasonable. Sometimes quality and durability has little relation to price.

loll this post is 11 years old.

RL-

True...but the person who renewed it was looking for "updates"... :-)

I am looking for one of the modern track lighting fixtures for my kitchen. Please recommend reliable brands and also any issues with this kind of light that I should watch for.