The entrance to your home sets the tone for your hospitality. A beautiful front stoop with flowers leads to a glass-lined door.
Guests ring an easily found doorbell, wipe their feet on a textured mat, and step into the space you’ve carefully created. More than furniture or art, your front entry lighting is a key consideration.
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Natural light from a glass door with sidelights is great, but you’ll need additional lighting for overcast days and dark nights. Overhead light sources, like elegant lanterns or small crystal chandeliers, provide a focal point and add a touch of elegance. A combination of these can be ideal.
For a sleek, bright solution, consider recessed lighting. It offers minimal space impact with maximum light output, and you can choose bulbs to match your preferred lighting color. Mirrors and lamps can also enhance and focus your entry lighting.
In this post, we have great examples of all five entrance hall lighting sources: natural light, overhead lighting, recessed lighting, lamps, and mirrors. So let’s get started!
Natural Light Source
Nothing lights up better than the sun, which is why many people choose glass-paneled doors and sidelights for their entryways. They let you see out and let glorious rays filter in.
Supplemental lighting will be needed on overcast days and during the evening, but don’t hesitate to maximize daylight when designing your entry.
Plate glass windows allow maximum daylight to stream into this entryway, which makes it a welcoming place for house plants. Note the addition of recessed lighting for darker days.
Great natural light doesn’t mean you have to shirk on interior lighting. This glamorous entry utilizes everything: enormous windows, overhead fixtures, and recessed lighting.
The pendant lamps even have mirror finishes to reflect the luminosity.
Don’t discount the importance of gorgeous outside light to spotlight your beautiful entry and equally gorgeous front door.
Leaded textured glass with matching sidelights provides both privacy and natural light in an entrance hall.
Contemporary art on the wall, a sleek modern staircase, and an amazing drum overhead light make this day-lit entrance hall appealing and bright.
This sleek brushed nickel design of 5 orbs hanging to meet a soft gray linen shade is perfect for an understated modern entrance hall. It has a tempered glass diffuser that allows soft light to spread into your room.
If you have a traditional wooden door featuring light panels, you can always retrofit it to replace the wooden panels with glass. This DIY updo will take a dark entryway and lighten it up with gorgeous sunshine.
Perhaps your entrance hall is directly connected to your living area, and all you need is an open door to bring in the light from windows and the light from your living room’s beautiful globe fixture.
All glass fixtures allow for full light to shine through.
Ceiling or Wall Mounted Fixtures
Ceiling fixtures are a way to light up a dark entryway. They can also showcase your home’s style if you choose a fixture that has presence and artistic quality.
You can further personalize your hall’s lighting with your choice of bulb wattage and warmth.
Sleek wall sconces on a granite wall combined with recessed lighting give an elegant vibe to this long entry hall.
These lovely midtown modern sconces from Possini combine frosted glass and polished nickel to give your entryway a contemporary vibe.
This elegant entry uses both natural lighting and overhead lighting to provide a welcoming environment at any time of day.
Glass globe flush overheads work on the ceiling below the landing, and wrought iron sconces, mirroring the staircase’s design, brighten the sides of the large window on the first landing.
Neutral colors in your interior go a long way toward enhancing the natural light of your entrance space.
A simple flush-mount canister is a minimal approach to overhead lighting, and matching its color to the ceiling keeps the floating staircase and basket collection the focal point of the well-lit entry.
No natural light? No problem. Double on your pendant lights and flood that hallway with illumination.
These corded pendant lights are great because they can screw in to replace your standard apartment recessed lighting without having to call an electrician.
Want the feel of recessed lighting but don’t want to break the bank by having them retrofitted in your entrance hall?
Consider track lighting. It sits flush to the ceiling and gives the same overall feeling and even coverage as recessed lighting without having to cut into your ceiling.
In an open-concept home, your entryway is often part of the main living area.
Consider choosing wall sconces to frame the door and pairing them with a flush-mount fixture that complements the rest of the larger space’s design.
In this case, simple brass and glass wall sconces pair beautifully with the multiple-light flush mount, also in brass.
Extra-tall ceilings allow for the freedom to choose large and elegant chandeliers. This double-windowed space utilizes natural light and a stunning eight-shaded chandelier.
Dark wood can make for dark entryways, but it doesn’t mean you have to steer clear of the glam. This tall crystal chandelier makes the space magical with the glow of its warm crystalline light.
The clever use of mirrors on the sidewalls helps reflect and multiply the glitter.
Consider a French Empire style chandelier if you really want to glam it up. These were originally made of metal and used candles for light.
But around Versailles, the French Royalty decided to glam up the look with crystals and gilt.
This beauty is a double tier with antique bronze finishes, glass crystals, and five lights for illumination.
Whitewashed walls and a long hall runner lead the eye to the double windows above the glass and wood doors. A single fixture provides light on darker days, but this space relies on sunlight and soft colors.
Recessed Lighting
The use of recessed lighting is perfect if you want something sleek and modern. It’s a perfect choice for lower ceiling heights and provides ample illumination.
Think about keeping your bulb choice warm, like halogen or incandescent, but if you’re going for LED bulbs, keep them in the 2700k temperature range.
Lamps
A gorgeous lamp on an entry table provides a warm beacon when the sun goes down. If you want more intimate lighting for your entry, consider using lamps.
Not only do they provide light, but they are also easily changeable and provide a visual focal point for your visitors.
Locked into a small entryway without natural light or good overhead light? Want a choice between bright overheads or something more intimate?
For a versatile lighting option, consider a cozy entry table with an elegant lamp.
This lamp features a bronze tone finish and a fabric drum shade, adding a touch of class to your space.
It offers useful task lighting and complements nearly any decor style, making it perfect for creating a warm and inviting entryway.
Mirrors
One way to capitalize on your lighting is to strategically use mirrors in your entrance hall.
A beautiful large mirror can reflect the natural light from a glass door and capture the sparkle from your overheads. Though not a light source itself, its reflective properties amplify illumination.
What this hallway lacks in natural lighting is made up for with the use of the large wall mirror. It not only reflects the light but creates the illusion of space in a cramped entryway.
We found this gorgeous example in our searching.
This large and lovely entryway takes advantage of the natural light by amplifying it with a large windowpane type mirror above a matching iron bench. It’s also fun to see the double mirror of entry and bathroom next to it.
This rustic arched window pane mirror in distressed white (also available in bronze) would look great in an airy entry.
