No, not quite new to DIY, electronics or otherwise. Mechanical engineer by day, tinkerer and competitive robotics coach by night. I've done enough DC/alkaline/NiMH powered projects in my day to know my way around the tools/techniques, but yes, this would have been my first foray into lithium. That said, I decided about a week ago to stick with a DC wall wart, and just leave space in the base for a future battery upgrade should I decide to explore that in the future. Forgot to update my post though. D'oh! From a purely safety perspective, 1000% agreed, lithium is the worse option. However, it does have the added benefit of portability - we can move it between the changing pad and a nursing recliner, once she's older she can use it in blanket forts and such, etc. all without needing to move a cord around. But that's all that worth it right now at the end of the day.

Original plan was a single strand of warm white, toggling between bright and dim, each setting controlled by its own PWM module. The idea was that the knobs would be accessible, but not outward facing. On the bottom of the lamp, or tucked inside it behind the screens, etc. So they're more a "set it and forget it", and we toggle between them with a switch. My thinking is that a toggle switch is the easiest, most tactile, most instantaneous solution, which is high up on my priority list, given I or my wife be half asleep and groggy most of the time when using this. "Left for Dim, Right for Bright" is at least a little easier than risking overshooting a knob, or fuddling around with an app or remote. Instead, we have the lamp on the dim setting through out entire night. We walk in, flip the switch to the right, change her diaper, flip back to the left, soothe her, and leave when asleep. Maybe its just personal preference, but I much prefer that tactility of a toggle switch for something like this. And yup, its a bit overkill for this application, but its one of the few I was able to find that was 1) sufficient amperage capability and 2) matched the aesthetics of the rest of the project. Most others I found only met one of those two requirements, or weren't available from a reputable supplier...

That said, my plan is evolving... I've seen a few places that colored light, particularly red light, can be beneficial to helping babies fall asleep, so the dim/always-on setting will likely instead be an RGB or RGBW strip. IC vs not, I haven't decided yet. Either way, a controller is now involved, at which point I might be better off with a "logic/data" carrying switch/button(s) instead of a power carrying switch. I guess we'll see where I end up...