How High to Mount a Wall Sconce, Room by Room

Wall sconces are the most forgiving light in a house to live with and the least forgiving to install. Once the wiring is in the wall, the height is decided. Get it right first time and the room gains a soft, layered quality that no ceiling fixture can produce on its own.

Here are the heights that actually get used, measured from the finished floor to the centre of the fixture unless stated otherwise.

Living rooms

150 to 183 cm, roughly 60 to 72 inches. Around eye level for a standing adult. Lower in the range for a room where people are mostly seated, higher where the sconce is meant to wash the wall.

Hallways

168 to 183 cm, roughly 66 to 72 inches. Slightly higher than a living room, because you pass through a hallway rather than sit in it, and a lower fixture is something to walk into.

Space them 1.8 to 2.4 metres apart, roughly 6 to 8 feet, along the wall. Closer than that reads as busy. Further apart leaves dark patches between pools of light.

Beside a bed

This is the one that differs most from the rest, and the one people most often get wrong by copying the living room number.

90 to 110 cm from the floor, roughly 35 to 43 inches, which usually works out to 15 to 30 cm, or 6 to 12 inches, above the top of the mattress.

Measure from your actual mattress, not a catalogue one. Mattress heights vary enormously, and a thick mattress with a topper can swallow four inches. The light needs to fall on a book in your lap, not on your headboard.

If you read in bed, a sconce with an adjustable or swing arm is worth the extra money. A fixed downward sconce lights one spot and one spot only.

Beside a bathroom mirror

150 to 178 cm, roughly 60 to 70 inches, mounted at the sides of the mirror rather than above it. Space a pair 91 to 102 cm, roughly 36 to 40 inches apart, centre to centre.

Side mounting matters more than the exact height. A light above a mirror casts shadows downward into your eye sockets and under your chin. Lights at either side fill those shadows in, which is why every well lit dressing room is built that way.

Stairways

150 to 168 cm, roughly 60 to 66 inches above the tread, measured from the individual step below each fixture rather than from the ground floor. That keeps the sconces climbing at the same angle as the stairs instead of drifting.

Space them 1.8 to 2.4 metres apart, as in a hallway.

Two practical notes

Check where the light actually goes. An up facing sconce throws light onto the ceiling and softens a whole room. A down facing one makes a pool on the floor. A shaded one does a bit of both. This affects the feel of a room far more than the height does.

Decide about switching early. A hardwired sconce needs a switch position agreed before the wall closes up. If that is a problem, a rechargeable or plug in sconce avoids the wiring entirely, and modern ones are far better than they used to be.

On bulbs

Warm white, 2700K to 3000K, for bedrooms, living rooms and hallways. Neutral white, 3500K to 4000K, beside a bathroom mirror where you need colours to read accurately. Keep every fixture you can see at once at the same temperature.

Browse our wall lights, or the full lighting range.