Illuminating the house entrance - Helpful tips and ideas

Planning entrance lighting – helpful tips and ideas.

First impressions count – this applies to many things in life, including the lighting at your front door. Guests should feel welcome right away, the mail carrier or ambulance should be able to find you quickly and easily, and you yourself should always be able to get home safely in the dark.

Lamps in the entrance area must therefore ensure safety as well as being attractive and inviting. Illuminated house numbers, path lights, or wall lamps are just a few examples of how you can design your home entrance.

With our planning guide, we want to show you even more possibilities and provide important tips on how you can optimally light your entrance to your home.

Planning preparation – What exactly is the layout of your entrance?

Every entrance area is designed differently and therefore offers very different lighting options.

So, the first thing to consider is the exact layout of your own entrance to the house: Is there a canopy? Where are the power connections? Do you need to plan for new ones, or should you use solar entrance lighting? Where are the potential tripping hazards? It is helpful to mark all relevant locations on a sketch to keep track of everything and ensure nothing is forgotten later.

What lighting provides sufficient basic brightness

Once you have an overview and have gathered some initial ideas for designing your home entrance, you can start planning in more detail. First, you should focus on the essentials: basic lighting for the immediate area around the front door.

For front door lighting, exterior wall lights are usually used, which are ideally installed at a height of about three-quarters of the door – two wall lights on the left and right sides are particularly inviting for larger entrance areas. However, mast lights or half-height bollard lights that illuminate the front entrance from the side can also be used. It is always important that the front door lighting is glare-free and sufficiently bright. Ceiling lights or LED spotlights are also ideal for canopies, providing a pleasant welcome for you and your guests.

How to make it easy to find your way around

To ensure that not only you can find your way around quickly, but also your guests or the mail carrier can find your house immediately when driving by, you can install illuminated house number can be helpful.

Depending on the design, this can also serve as a wall light, allowing you to combine basic lighting with house number lighting—perfect for narrow entrances in particular.

LED house numbers are available in countless designs and styles, giving your entrance a more modern look.

Illuminated house numbers are even mandatory in some cities and municipalities, such as Hamburg, so you should definitely find out in advance about the applicable rules in your place of residence. 

To prevent danger, it must remain switched on throughout the night, thus ensuring your safety, because if the police, ambulance, or fire department ever need to come, every second counts.

When installing an LED house number for home entrance lighting, it is important to ensure that the height and size of the digits are appropriate. They should not be placed too low, and in order to remain legible even from a distance of 20 meters, illuminated signs must be at least 20 cm high and backlit signs at least 10 cm high.

Is the path to the entrance also safely lit?

In addition to the lighting directly in front of the door, it is also important to illuminate the path leading to it, as this is often not clearly visible at night and can therefore become a tripping hazard.

Wall lights or ceiling lamps are usually not sufficient for this purpose, as they simply do not shine far enough. You should therefore also use pedestal or path lights .

They make the ground conditions and obstacles visible, ensuring a safe arrival home. When installing such path lights, the following applies: the lower the light point height, the shorter the distance to the next lamp must be.

Which areas should be highlighted decoratively?

In addition to all these more functional lights for the house entrance, which provide safety and orientation, the visual aspect should not be neglected – after all, the entrance area is the very first impression you make on visitors, and you yourself should feel right at home.

Of course, an illuminated house number or basic and path lighting can already look chic, because lamp manufacturers also place great emphasis on design here. However, for your own individual style and the finishing touch, it is worth additional decorative lights .

They create a welcoming atmosphere and make coming home even more pleasant – here you can give free rein to your creativity when planning your entrance lighting.