Installing a lamp: the safe method, room by room

Locate the mounting point before touching the drill: height of the surface to be lit, cable routes, existing electrical supply. Switch off the power at the breaker, check with a tester, then drill. A pendant hangs 70 to 80 cm above a table, a wall light sits just above shoulder height.

How do you install a light fixture?

Start with the mounting point, not the drilling. Note the working height, what runs through the support and the available electrical supply. The selection of light fixtures is chosen afterwards, based on these three constraints combined.

Choose the fixing point before ordering

The drill doesn't decide, the support does. A solid slab takes an expansion plug. A plasterboard ceiling requires hitting a joist or using a toggle plug. The weight of a pendant is carried by the fixing, never by the cable.

Second reflex, the axis. When the electrical supply is offset, the fixture ends up beside the table it was meant to light. A LED ceiling light compensates for this offset thanks to a wide base, something a slim pendant cannot forgive.

Ceiling light, pendant or wall light, three different actions

The mounting dictates everything: height, fixing, number of wires to connect.

• Ceiling light: base screwed to the ceiling, no height adjustment needed
• Pendant: support to fix, cable to cut to the desired length
• Wall light: wall fixing, height decided before drilling

On a pendant, the cable length is adjusted before fixing, not after. The full method is in our guide to installing a pendant light on the ceiling.

The wall format remains the simplest to fall back on when nothing is planned in the ceiling. The collection of wall lights has 6535 references as of 5 October 2026, from the discreet model to the sculptural one.

Connecting a ceiling light takes three steps, detailed in our article on installing a ceiling lamp.

What a well-placed lamp changes in a room

A well-placed lamp lights what you are doing, not the empty space in the middle of the room. It removes the shadow of your hand on the worktop, lights a book without glare, defines a corner without turning it into a stage. The test takes one action: turn off the ceiling light, turn on the lamp alone.

Light that follows everyday actions

Three uses, three heights. The eye goes where the hand works, and the source is placed just outside that field.

• Reading: the source goes behind the shoulder, never in line with the book
• Hosting: light falls at an angle on faces, not from the centre
• Cooking: the worktop is lit from above, without the body casting a shadow

Closer or further from the surface, what you see

Distance changes the nature of the light before changing its power. Too close, it burns the page. Too far, it lights the ceiling.

Above a sofa, short distance is accepted. A living room pendant drops to seated eye level and does the job no ceiling light will do. It is often the first purchase that changes a room.

What are the common mistakes when installing a light fixture?

Three come up almost every time: drilling without locating cables, hanging a heavy fixture in a hollow slab without suitable fixing, reconnecting without checking the earth. A fourth spoils the effect without endangering anyone: mounting the fixture too high, which then lights the ceiling.

Drilling without locating cable routes

A metal detector is passed over the wall before every drill hole. Three markers are enough to avoid trouble:

• Vertical conduits run from switches and sockets
• Horizontal conduits run at socket height, not randomly
• The consumer unit feed often rises in a wall corner

Locate, mark with a pencil, then drill at low speed without pushing.

Hanging under a sloped ceiling

A horizontal support screwed under a slope pulls on a single screw. You need a ball joint, a threaded rod cut at an angle, or a wedge that brings the fixing back to plumb. The cable itself never works under tension.

When the whole room is being rethought, lighting points are planned before the work, not after. Our page on the lighting project for a living room details this order.

How do you connect the blue and brown wires of a chandelier?

Blue goes to neutral, brown to live, green-yellow to earth. On the chandelier terminal block, neutral is marked N and live L. If the ceiling light has only two wires, the earth is connected to the metal body or to the screw provided for that purpose.

Identify live, neutral and earth

Three colours, one simple logic.

• Blue: neutral, terminal N on the block
• Brown: live, terminal L
• Green-yellow: earth, to be connected systematically

Checking with a multimeter takes thirty seconds and avoids tripping the whole house. The procedure is detailed in our article on connecting a light fixture to the ceiling.

Connecting a 3-wire fixture to a 2-wire ceiling point

A classic case in older homes: the fixture brings three conductors, the ceiling provides only two. Connect blue to blue and brown to brown, then fix the appliance earth to the body.

The reverse also exists. A two-wire fixture under an installation with earth is finished by neatly insulating the green-yellow in a connector block, without cutting it.

How do you connect a lamp without a socket?

Two situations. If a DCL box is already in place on the ceiling, the lamp fits onto it in minutes, without tools: the DCL box is designed for this direct connection.

If no supply exists, three options open up: run a cable from a switch, install a battery-powered fixture, or choose a solar model. The solutions are compared in this guide on ceiling lamps without an electrical supply.

A single control point for several fixtures is also possible. The wiring is explained in our article on connecting several lamps to one switch.

Unsure about the support, the number of conductors to connect or the cable routes? Describe the room before drilling, the workshop will answer: simply write to the workshop.

How do you install a lamp room by room?

The room decides the height and the protection rating. Above a table, the pendant comes down. In a hallway, the wall light goes up to shoulder height. In a bathroom, nothing is fixed before checking the IP rating. None of these values is guessed by feel.

Living room, dining room, kitchen

Above a table, the fixture comes down to light faces without looming over them. A dining room chandelier is placed 70 or 80 cm from the surface, a rule that also applies to a kitchen pendant.

In the living room, two points are better than one: a discreet general light on the ceiling, and a low source near the sofa. That is what separates a lit room from a livable room.

Bedroom, hallway and bathroom, the protection rating

The bedroom calls for grazing light rather than a ceiling light that flattens the bed. In a bedroom, a selection of bedroom light fixtures favours low sources and dimmers, to end the evening without turning the whole room back on.

The hallway is lit at shoulder height, to avoid switching on the ceiling light on every pass. The height of a wall light is decided before drilling, never after.

Then there is water. From a survey of 247 references in our wall light collection, as of 5 October 2026, 91% declare IP20 and 5% IP65. In other words, most of the models you like have no place above a washbasin.