Brightening a Dark Hallway

Get inexpensive ideas for adding light to a dark space – including hallways, which can usually be lit using existing electrical outlets.

LESLIE: Now we’ve got Leonard in North Carolina on the line with a lighting question. How can we help you today?

LEONARD: Yes, I have a hallway in my home that is totally dark. And I want to know: what kind of options do you have available?

TOM: So you don’t have outlets in the home, so you basically want to add some additional lighting.

LEONARD: Yes.

TOM: Alright. So, why don’t you simply run an extra circuit to feed a ceiling fixture?

LEONARD: That might be an option.

TOM: I mean it’s not as hard as you might think. Electricians do this sort of thing all the time. They will look for the path of least resistance, both electrically and physically, to get the wiring where it needs to go and provide that additional lighting option. You don’t necessarily need an outlet to do that.

If you had an outlet or even if you had an outlet, for example, on the opposite walls – say the – let’s say the hallway is between – the other side of the hallway is a bedroom and there’s an outlet on that same wall, they might go down that wall to grab power from that outlet, bring the wire up across the hallway, drop it back down again and put in a ceiling fixture.

LEONARD: Never thought about that.

TOM: So I would consider – yeah, I would consider hiring an electrician and just running a ceiling fixture and forget the idea of using any kind of plug-in device. Recessed lighting is another option.

LEONARD: You guys have been a big help. Thanks a lot.