Great lamp, arrived well packed. I used 9 watt spiral CFL light bulbs (equivalent to 40 watts) but I think 25 watt regular bulbs would look nice also, especially if you want a little less light. I took one star off because it's hard to insert the light bulbs. I was by myself when I inserted the bulbs. I had to tilt the lamp with the bottom facing up while I was sitting down. Then you need to remove the wingnuts and screws and maneuver the light pole through the lamp and pull it out the top of the lamp (you need to squeeze together the 3 ends of the pole in order for them to fit through the shade cylinder before you can pull out the rod). I wasn't able to reconnect the wing nuts and screws after that (I may try again another time), but it's not really necessary to reconnect them so I left them out and just stood the lamp upright without reconnecting them. I had bought the Eangee giant multicolor wave lamp before this and the procedure for inserting the bulbs on that lamp is much easier. I wouldn't pass up buying this lamp for that reason though.