Hallway Wall Lights

Why a hall suits wall lights

A corridor lit only from the ceiling reads as a tunnel. Light on the walls does the opposite: it shows the width of the space and gives the eye something to follow. In a hall under 2.4m, wall lights also keep the ceiling clear, which matters when people are carrying things through.

Spacing and height

Mount at about 1.5m to 1.7m from the floor, which puts the light above head height and below the ceiling line. Space them roughly 2m to 2.5m apart along the run. Two correctly spaced wall lights beat one central ceiling fitting in almost every hall we have measured.

Where there is a mirror or a picture in the hall, set the lights to it rather than to the wall. A pair either side of a mirror at 1.6m lights a face evenly, which is what a hall mirror is for, and it fixes the spacing for the rest of the run. Lighting a hall symmetrically and then hanging the mirror off centre is the order most people do it in and it never quite works.

Projection, and why it matters more here

In a room, how far a wall light stands out from the wall is a design question. In a hall it is a practical one: a fitting that projects 15cm into a 90cm corridor is something people will catch with a shoulder. The shallower fittings in this collection, at 11.5cm and under, are the ones to reach for in a narrow hall.

Up, down, or both

An uplighter throws light at the ceiling and bounces it back, which is soft and even. A downlighter makes a scallop on the wall below it and reads as more deliberate. Fittings that do both give the most usable light in a hall, and are the ones to choose if these are the only lights in the space.

Output should be modest. A hall wall light that is bright enough to read by is too bright at night, when the same fitting is what you walk past at two in the morning. 200 to 400 lumens per fitting is usually enough across a run of two or three, and it is a room where several dim lights beat one bright one.

Matching the stairs

Where a hall runs into a staircase, wall lights on the stairs want to follow the pitch rather than sit at one height. Keep the same fitting and the same finish and step the mounting height up with the treads; the run then reads as one scheme rather than two.

Finishes and lamps

Brass leads here, with white and black close behind. Many brass fittings have an antique finish, and a few white paintable fittings suit a hall where the light should not be seen at all. Many take E14 or E27; the G9 fittings are the compact ones, and worth checking against the projection figure before you commit.

Cable position decides more than people expect. A wall light needs its feed at the mounting height, and moving it later means chasing the plaster. If the hall is being rewired or replastered, mark the fitting positions on the wall and stand in the hall before the cable goes in; the position that looks right on a plan is often wrong in the space.