Dimmable Wall Lights

Why dimming matters more on a wall than a ceiling

A wall light sits at eye level, which means you look at it rather than past it. At full output that can be uncomfortable in a room you are trying to relax in, and it is the main reason people stop using wall lights they have gone to the trouble of installing. Being able to take a pair of bedside lights down to a low glow, or drop a hall to a level you can walk through at night without waking up properly, is what makes the fitting useful rather than decorative.

Integrated LED against a replaceable lamp

Roughly a third of the fittings here have the LED built in. Those are sealed units with a driver inside, they run cool and they are slim, but when the LED reaches the end of its life the fitting is done. The rest take a replaceable lamp, most often the small E14 or the G9 capsule, and with those you choose the brightness and the colour temperature yourself and can change your mind later. Both dim, but they dim differently, and that difference is what usually goes wrong.

Choosing a dimmer that actually works

Most modern LED fittings want a trailing-edge dimmer. Older leading-edge dimmers were built for filament lamps and will often make an LED flicker, buzz or refuse to go low. There is also a minimum load: a single small LED wall light may draw so little power that an old dimmer cannot see it at all. If you are replacing filament fittings with LED, budget for changing the dimmer at the same time. Each product page states whether the fitting is dimmable and what it needs.

Where they go, and at what height

Beside a bed, mount at around 1.4 to 1.5 metres so the light falls on the page rather than in your eyes, and offset it towards the outside of the bed. In a hall, spacing at roughly two metre intervals at head height gives an even wash without hot spots. Flanking a fireplace or a mirror, keep the pair level with each other and a little above the centre line of what they frame. A swing arm wants to reach where you will actually read.

Up, down or both

Some of these throw light in one direction and some split it up and down. A downward fitting is task light: reading, a worktop, a stair tread. An upward wash bounces off the ceiling and lifts the whole room, which is the softer option in a bedroom. Fittings that do both give you the most flexibility in a hall or a stairwell. Fabric and opal glass shades soften the output further, while metal and clear glass keep the beam tight and the contrast higher.

Ratings, switching and wiring

Most of these are IP20, which means dry indoor rooms only. A bathroom needs a fitting rated for the zone it sits in, and there are IP44 and higher options in our bathroom range. A small number carry a switch on the fitting itself, which is useful beside a bed where the circuit has no wall switch and there is no appetite for chasing out plaster. Mains wiring should be done by a qualified electrician, and it is worth deciding on the dimmer before the wiring goes in.