Choosing The Right Outdoor Sconce And How To Install An Outdoor Sconce

Ah it’s that time again, you know the time of year when the sun is out all the time, the flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and yup you’re doing home improvements again and this time its outdoor lighting.  The only problem is, is that you don’t know which type of sconce to pick or how to install it. Well we are going to fix that first let’s talk about picking out the right one for your house.  Choosing the right type of outdoor sconce for your home all depends on which kind of setup you have and which type of mood that you are trying to portray.  To narrow down your choices first look at the area where you are wanting to put the light fixtures and ask yourself these questions:  What kind of feel does my area have? Is it modern, is it rustic, is it classical, or is it just plain cookie cutter with no character at all? Am I trying to create a mood for my area? Do you want to make the area feel calm or relaxed; are you trying to make the area feel alive and exuberant? Asking and answering these two types of questions will narrow down a lot of the choices that you are looking at, as a modern outdoor sconce usually does not go well with a rustic setup and vica versa, also really bright sconces that are not very suited for areas that are more mellow and calm.

Now that you have picked out your sconce it is now time to install it. There are many different ways to install an outdoor sconce. Today we are going to be talking about how to install an outdoor sconce onto a wooden exterior wall.

The first thing that we are going to need is the materials. The materials that we need are cut-in electrical boxes, an existing electrical outlet that is easily assessable, drywall saw, side cutters, wire strippers, fish tape, drill, light switch, paddle bit, drill bit, electrical wire, jig saw, measuring tape, stud finder, and Phillips and flathead screwdrivers.

After you have gathered all of these materials it is now time to decide where it is that you would like to have your outdoor sconce placed. The most common place to have sconces is on the wall nearest your door knob and about 72”-75” from the ground and right next to a wall stud. If you already have an outdoor sconce here and want to just simply change it out then this would be an ideal spot to do this and you can pretty much skip these next set of steps if you would like. After you have measured where you would like the sconce to go use the stud finder to find the nearest stud, and decide whether or not you would like for the line to be top or bottom of the cut in box. If it is the top make your mark and then proceed to trace the cut in box onto the wall. Now after you have this outline drawn go to the other side of the wall and see if you can put a switch close to the other switches on your wall and proceed to do the same thing as you did with the outside wall.

Once you have marked the wall with the outline of the box use the drill and the paddle bit or hole saw to make a hole inside of the traced box outline. After you have done this use either the jig saw or dry wall saw to go along the line of the outline. After this is done use a drill bit to drill a hole in the stud twice the size of the wire being used. Once you have done this it is now time to go to the interior wall and do the exact same things, just be careful not to nick or cut any existing wires that may be in the wall.

Now that you have drilled the hole run the wire from the outside wall to the interior wall using the fish tape, it is very useful to have two people for this step. Also it is very useful to pull extra wire through the hole as to have some extra to play with and well it just makes life a whole lot easier when it comes time to tie everything together. Once this is done run the wire through your cut in boxes and attach the cut in boxes to your stud (some people prefer to use nails when attaching cut in boxes but I prefer screws it is just all personal preference).

Now comes time to attach the sconce to the wall surface, some sconces have brackets others just have bolts, screws and wall anchors. Whichever your sconce comes with make sure to follow the directions and secure it properly. If you are using the bracket type install the bracket first and then wire up according to your instructions. If you have the type of sconce that just uses the wall anchors then wire the fixture up first and then secure it to the wall. If you your sconce did not come with instructions then wire up as follows black is the hot wire, white is neutral wire and green is the ground wire, just match these colors and you should be fine. After wiring up the sconce it is now time to wire up the wall switch.

To do this you will want to make sure that you turn off the power to the electrical outlet so that there is no chance of electrical shock. After this is done we will now connect the outlet wire to the light switch. The way that this goes is black wire to copper screw, the white wire to the silver screw and the green wire to the green ground screw. To do this grab your wire cutters and the stripped end of a wire and put the stripped end into one of the holes in the wire cutters and make a loop or hook. You will want to make the hook so that it looks like a p as in the straight long side of the wire is on the left side and the loop is on the right. The reason for this is when we put the wire under its correct screw it will remain intact against the switch plate. After you have connected both of the black and white wires to the switch make the loop for the green outlet wire and make the loop for the green ground switch to sconce wire and put them both onto the same green grounding screw. This is the only time that this should happen expect when connecting the sconce wire earlier on in the project. After connecting the two grounds turn the switch over and there should be an exact set of the same screws as the other side. This is where you are to wire up the switch to sconce wire. Just to recap as how a switch is wired black wire goes to copper screw, white wire goes to silver screw, and green ground wire goes to green ground screw.

After all of this is done all that is left is to put the switch in the wall, secure it, hang sconce if need be , turn the power back on and check to see if it works.