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Large wall light: how to choose according to the wall

This article is also available in French: Applique murale grande taille

26/09/2026 · 1 min read · By the Designix team

Allow for a wall light that takes up between one third and half the width of the wall it lights. Place its centre around 1.50 m from the floor in a living room, at headboard height in a bedroom. Measure the wall width and the clear height before you look at any model.

What size is a wall light?

Standard models measure between 15 and 30 cm in their largest dimension. Above 40 cm wide, you enter large wall light territory: it lights a whole section of wall instead of a single point. The designer wall light range lists 7380 references as of 26 September 2026.

Large wall light: what changes with the wall

	Bedroom / headboard	Living room / large wall	Outdoors / terrace
Format that works	Tall for reading, contained width	Generous width, it structures the wall	Large size, shape readable from a distance
Mounting height	1.10 to 1.20 m from the floor, above the bedside table	Upper third of the wall, aligned with an existing reference point	Above 1.80 m to light without glare
Socket or technology	E27 or integrated LED	E27, G9 or integrated LED	Integrated LED, often non replaceable
Ingress protection rating	IP20 is enough	IP20 is enough	IP44 minimum, IP65 by the sea
What you are after	A crisp cone of light onto the book	A wide wash, without hot spots	Grazing light across the facade
What to avoid	A strip wider than the bed	Two large wall lights competing with each other	A model without a sealing gasket

Across a survey of 224 listings in this range, same date, 92% are declared wall mounted, 88% metal and 61% black. A large wall light therefore remains, overwhelmingly, a metal object fixed to the wall.

Under 20 cm: an accent point, to be placed in a series of three in a hallway.
20 to 40 cm: the standard format, enough
What we check before selecting
- warranty 2 years on 95% of the selection
- certification CE on 98% of the selection
- material Metal on 88% of the selection
- technology LED on 73% of the selection