Renter-friendly bedroom lighting

One ceiling fixture, often the cheapest one the landlord could fit, and a switch by the door. Sometimes not even that - a bare socket, or a switched outlet with nothing plugged into it. Either way the light is above you, cool, and controlled from the wrong side of the room.

The fix is not one product. It is three small layers that together make the ceiling fixture optional: something at the bed, something to read by, and something low for the middle of the night. None of them needs a drill.

Start by changing the bulb in the fixture you have, because it is free to reverse and it fixes the color of the whole room. Then add the layers below.

NIORSUN rechargeable wall sconces - the pick for a bedside. A pair of battery sconces on adhesive or screw-free mounts, which is the closest thing to a hardwired bedside light a renter can have. They lift off the plate to recharge or to carry, and they put the light at head height instead of on a table you may not have.
Cons: they need recharging, and battery light output is modest compared with a plugged-in lamp.

Glocusent clip-on reading light - for reading without lighting the room. Clips to a headboard or a book, aims a narrow beam at the page, and leaves the rest of the room dark - which matters when someone else is asleep in it.
Cons: it is a task light only; it will not make the room feel lit.

WOBANE COB LED strip - the glow behind the headboard. A continuous-looking dimmable strip that tucks behind a headboard or under the bed frame, throwing light at the wall rather than at your eyes. It is the cheapest way to make a plain rental bedroom look deliberate.
Cons: adhesive strips can lift in a humid room, and cables need routing to an outlet.

AUVON plug-in motion night lights - for the walk to the bathroom. Plug-in, motion-triggered and dim by design, so nobody hunts for a switch at 3am and nobody is woken by a ceiling light.
Cons: they occupy an outlet, which is scarce in older bedrooms.

Test the wall first. Stick a spare adhesive strip somewhere hidden - behind a door, low in a corner - and pull it off a day later. Old distemper and fresh cheap paint both come away with the tape, and you want to learn that on a square inch nobody sees.

Mount at sitting height, not standing height. A bedside sconce at shoulder height when you are propped up reads a book properly. The same fixture at standing height lights your forehead.

Keep every cable on one side. Running a strip cable and a charger to the same outlet, down the same edge of the bed, is the difference between tidy and temporary. More on that in how to hide a plug-in fixture cord.

Change the ceiling bulb anyway. Even if you never switch it on, a warm bulb in the fixture makes the room consistent when guests use the switch - see the best light bulbs for a bedroom.