Tomi Round Travertine Ceiling Light

The Tomi is a small round ceiling light built from a ring of natural yellow travertine and a globe of milk glass held inside it. Travertine is a spring-formed limestone, and the yellow variety carries a sand-toned body crossed by darker mineral bands, with the open pores that give the stone its name in the trade: a honed surface that still shows the small pits and channels left by the water it grew in. The ring is cut from solid stone, not clad, so the pores continue around the rim and the colour shifts slightly from one side of the fixture to the other. Inside it, the frosted glass globe holds the light source out of sight. Because the glass is diffusing rather than clear, the sphere lights evenly and throws light in every direction, including sideways onto the ceiling around the fitting, which softens the shadow line that most flush lights cast. Under the globe you get a warm, even wash rather than a hard spot, and looking up at it there is no bright point to squint at. At sixteen centimetres in each direction the whole fixture is compact, so it sits close to the ceiling and reads as a small stone ring with a lit centre.

Tomi is made for the rooms where a pendant will not fit. In a hallway with a standard ceiling height, anything that hangs gets in the way of a door swing or a tall person; a flush fitting sixteen centimetres deep does not, and because the light goes sideways as well as down it lifts the whole corridor instead of leaving dark ends. On a landing or a stairwell head it does the same job and stays out of reach of anyone carrying something up the stairs. In a bedroom it works as the general layer above the room, warm enough that switching it on at night does not feel clinical, and quiet enough overhead that it does not become the first thing you look at from the bed. In a small kitchen or a utility corner it gives usable all-round light without the grease trap of an open shade. The sand-yellow stone reads warm against white plaster and warmer still against clay or beige walls, and it pairs naturally with oak, cane and brushed metal fittings. Because the stone is honed rather than glossy, it does not reflect daylight from a window and looks the same at noon as it does at night, which matters in a hall where the fixture is in view all day.

The small round ceiling light is usually the most disappointing fitting in a house: a plastic or pressed-metal disc chosen because something had to go there. Tomi replaces that with a piece of cut stone, and the difference shows most in the places you pass through rather than sit in. The travertine ring gives the fixture real thickness and a visible edge, so it looks like an object fitted to the ceiling rather than a cover screwed over a hole. Every ring comes out of a different part of the block, which means the depth of the yellow, the run of the banding and the size of the open pores change from piece to piece; two Tomis fitted in the same hallway will not match exactly, and that is the point of using real stone. Practically, it is easy to live with. There is no hanging cord to align, nothing to swing, and the milk glass wipes clean. It suits flats and houses with normal ceiling heights, renovation projects where every hallway and landing needs a fitting and none of them should look cheap, and anyone building a Japandi or warm minimal interior who wants the same material language overhead as on the floor and furniture. Buy several and treat the small ceiling light as a finish rather than an afterthought.

• Material: natural yellow travertine (natural stone) and milk glass
• Dimensions: 16 x 16 x 16 cm
• Colour: sand-yellow travertine
• Diffuser: frosted globe, light spread in all directions
• Mounting: flush ceiling mount
• Light: warm, soft and even
• Finish: honed natural stone, pores and banding vary per piece