A garage door is often the largest single surface on the front of a home, and the light around it is usually an afterthought. This collection concentrates on the exterior side of the door: modern wall sconces and long LED wall lights in stainless steel and aluminum, made for the garage face, the driveway and the walk inside at night.

Garage light fixtures, outside and in

Almost everything here is for the outside of the garage. Terri and Brook are minimalist sconces in black, plain enough to repeat along a wall. Dawn comes in solar and non-solar versions, which settles the wiring question on a detached garage, and Falcon is aluminum in two designs. Vetra runs a vertical LED band in three sizes. Haylen is the long strip wall light of the group, a waterproof lamp in eight lengths from 12 to 94 inches, close to a custom fit for any frontage. Inside the door, a pendant only suits a garage with real height, so the modern ceiling lights range carries the flush designs a garage ceiling calls for.

Lumens, temperature and mounting heights

Garage lighting ideas usually fail on coverage rather than brightness, so plan the indoor side around 50 lumens per square foot: about 10,000 lumens for a one-car garage, 20,000 or more for a two-car space, split across several fixtures so coverage stays even. Give a workbench its own task light, and use cool white between 4000K and 5000K where detail work happens, which keeps color honest for paint and fine assembly. Outside, 200 to 700 lumens around the door covers arrivals without floodlighting the driveway, with sconces mounted at 66 to 72 inches above grade on each side.

The garage face, the driveway and the approach

A pair of sconces flanking the garage door does two jobs: it makes the approach safe at night and puts a lit face on the front of the home. On a wide frontage, repeat one fixture at even intervals, since a single design reads deliberate where a mix reads accidental. Where wiring is hard to run, the solar versions are the simplest solutions, and the outdoor solar lights collection gathers them in one place. Match the metal and glass to the rest of the outdoor lighting on the house, treating bubble-glass columns as accent rather than floodlight.

Set the lumen target for the interior first, then choose the exterior pieces to suit the house. One repeated sconce, hung at the same height on both sides, is usually the whole answer.