How to light a hallway or a stairwell

A hallway is the one part of a house that is only ever passed through, which is why it tends to get one pendant in the middle of the ceiling and no further thought. That single fitting throws light down onto the floor, leaves the walls dark, and makes a narrow space feel narrower.

Wall lights solve it, because light on the walls is what makes a corridor feel wider. Here is how to plan them.

Spacing: the 1.8 to 2.5 metre rule

Set fittings between 1.8 and 2.5 metres apart along the run. Closer than 1.8 and the pools of light join into a stripe, which looks like a corridor in a budget hotel. Further than 2.5 and you get bright spots with dark gaps between them, which reads as worse than one central pendant.

Measure the run first and divide. A 5 metre hallway takes two fittings at roughly 1.7 metres from each end. A 7 metre hallway takes three.

Height: 1.5 to 1.7 metres from the floor

Unlike a bedside light, a hallway fitting is referenced from the floor because there is no furniture to relate it to. Somewhere between 150 and 170 cm puts it at roughly eye level for a standing adult.

Go towards the lower end if the ceilings are standard, and towards the higher end if they are tall, so the fitting sits visually in the middle third of the wall rather than stranded near the skirting.

Projection is the constraint nobody plans for

This is where hallways differ from every other room. A corridor might be 90 cm wide. A fitting that reaches 19 cm out from the wall has taken more than a fifth of it, and it is at shoulder height.

In anything under about 110 cm wide, choose a fitting that sits close to the wall:

• The Munich sits 4.5 cm off the wall and stands 20.5 cm tall. It throws up and down, which is exactly the effect a corridor wants: two soft washes on the wall rather than a puddle on the floor.
• The Stockholm sits 3.7 cm off the wall and runs 40 cm long. Mounted horizontally it draws a line along the corridor, which lengthens it visually.

In a wider hall, a landing, or anywhere with a console against one wall, you can afford reach. The Verona reaches 19 cm out on a brass-toned arm and breaks the light into vertical bands through its fluted glass, which puts texture on a wall that would otherwise be flat.

Stairwells are a different problem

On stairs the two things that matter are that every tread is visible and that no fitting is at head height on the way up.

Follow the pitch rather than the floor: keep each fitting the same distance above the nosing of the tread beneath it, so the line of lights climbs at the same angle as the stairs. Fittings set at one flat height along a staircase look wrong from the bottom and are in your face from the top.

An up and down fitting earns its place here, because the downward throw lights the tread and the upward throw stops the ceiling going black.

Which wall

If the hall has doors down one side, put the lights on the other. A fitting next to a door frame is a fitting that gets caught by the door, and the switching is rarely convenient.

If there are doors on both sides, centre the fittings between them and accept slightly uneven spacing. Even spacing that collides with a door frame is worse than uneven spacing that does not.

Temperature

Neutral, 3500K to 4000K. A hallway is a transition, not a place you settle, and warm light in a corridor tends to read as dingy rather than cosy. We go into the reasoning in Warm, neutral or cool.

Before you buy

Every wall light we sell is hardwired rather than plug-in, so there is a wiring question to settle first, and in a hallway you are often adding a fitting where no cable currently runs. That is a bigger job than swapping an existing one. We cover what is involved, and when it is notifiable, in Do wall lights need an electrician?

Quick reference

• Spacing: 1.8 to 2.5 m apart along the run
• Height: 150 to 170 cm from the floor
• Corridor under 110 cm wide: maximum 5 cm projection
• Stairs: follow the pitch, measured from each tread nosing
• Temperature: 3500K to 4000K