How to Install Outdoor Sconce Lighting

Installing outdoor sconce lighting is not just about a mechanical installation. It also takes some choosing, and this involves weighing the impact your setup will have on your choices and deciding what kind of mood you will want your sconce to create.

Step 1 – Choosing Your Fixtures

To help you make the right choice of fixtures, begin by considering the area where you'll install your fixtures. Will you want to create a mood that will be more modern, classical, or rustic? Are you more interested in creating a mood of excitement, or one of relaxation? If it's excitement you want, you'll probably lean more toward brighter lights. For something a bit more mellow, you might favor a more reduced lighting.

Step 2 – Choosing Your Installation Location

If you plan to install a new sconce where you've never before had one installed, then you'll need to decide where to install it. The best place—sometimes the only place—to mount it is on an existing wall and very close to a wall stud. You'll probably want it mounted near an outside door, and at a height of about 6 feet.

Step 3 – Installing Your Electrical Box and Wire

To install your box, use your stud finder and locate a wall stud you can attach your box to. Place your electrical box against the wall, against a wall stud, where you'll want the box installed. Trace around it with a pencil. Examine the inside of this wall to determine your closest electrical outlet from which you'll run your electrical wire. Then, if your new box location is still good, cut around the outline you drew on the wall, and there, attach the box to the nearby stud. You'll also need to mark and cut an opening on the inside wall behind the wall from where you'll install your sconce electrical box. Shut off power to the existing receptacle, from which you'll be running your new electrical cable, then connect the wires in his cable to the receptacle terminals. Run the cable from this receptacle to the box in which you'll install your new sconce switch. Then, run the cable from the switch to the sconce box. If necessary, use surface channeling to run your electrical cable in.

Step 4 – Attaching Your Sconce

If you sconce comes with a mounting bracket, attach the bracket to one of the wall studs near your electrical box. For a sconce that has no bracket associated with it, mount the sconce to the wall. Then, connect electrical wires to the sconce.

Step 5 – Connecting Your Wiring

When your wire has been connected, remove the wire sheathing and insulation at both ends of the cable from the hot receptacle to the switch, and from the switch to the sconce. Connect the wires to all these boxes the same: black wire to black wire, white wire to white wire, and bare ground to bare ground. When finished, place wall plates on all boxes, then turn the power on and check to be sure your sconce is working as it should.