Hardwired Animal Wall Sconce for a Kids Room, Step by Step

Fitting a hardwired animal wall sconce for kids room use is a planning job before it is an electrical one. The wiring takes an hour. The decisions that make it right — where the box sits, how high, which side of the cot, where the switch goes — take longer and cannot be changed once the wall is closed.

The reason to hardwire at all in a child's room is that it removes the cord completely. A fixture connected to a standard wall box has nothing hanging down it, which is the single most useful safety property a light in this room can have.

Houseland's bear sconce is built on that assumption: hardwired, no visible cord, and a rotary switch on the body rather than only at the door. What follows is the sequence that gets it in the right place.

Does a hardwired wall sconce for a kids room need an electrical box?

Yes, and that requirement drives every other decision on this list.

The fixture terminates in a standard wall box, which houses the connections and gives the backplate something solid to screw into. That is what allows it to run with no cord showing. It also means the position is set in plaster: moving it later is a chase, a repair and a repaint rather than a matter of unscrewing two fixings.

Two consequences follow. The first is that the box must be decided before the room is finished, or accepted as a small repair afterwards. The second is that the box height is the height of the light, so it is worth thinking in terms of the furniture that will be in the room in three years rather than what is in it today.

Where the wall is already finished and nobody wants to open it, a plug-in fixture with the cable routed carefully is a legitimate answer. It is not as tidy and it is not as safe with a toddler in the room, but it is honest, and it can be upgraded later without wasting the fixture.

How do I choose the box height before the furniture arrives?

Work backwards from the two pieces of furniture that will not move: the cot, and later the bed.

1. Measure the cot's top rail, usually around 35 in from the floor. Nothing should be reachable from inside, so the fixture wants to be clearly above it.
2. Set the box between 55 and 60 in from the floor for a light beside a changing table or a feeding chair. That puts the shade at standing eye level, above a cot rail and below a ceiling.
3. Offset it from the centre of the cot wall. A fixture directly above a cot is looked up at from below, which is the position that finds the bulb.
4. Allow for the fixture's own height. A unit 8.3 in (21 cm) tall hangs differently from the box than a small flush fitting, and the shade centre is what you are actually positioning.
5. Mark the position in pencil, live with it for a day, and check it from the doorway and from the chair before anyone drills.

The most common regret is a box centred on a wall for symmetry rather than positioned for a task. A light that looks balanced in an empty room and shines into a face during a night feed is the wrong light in the right place.

Houseland lists the height and shade width of the bear sconce rather than only its overall dimensions, because those are the two figures this decision actually needs. A fixture 8.3 in (21 cm) tall hangs its shade centre several inches below the box, and a plan drawn to the box alone puts the light lower than intended once it is up. Measure to the shade, then set the box above it.

Where should the switch go in a child's room?

On the fixture body, with the door switch as a secondary rather than the only option.

A rotary knob on the lamp is what makes a bedtime routine end with the child alone in the room. A wall switch by the door means an adult has to walk back across a dark floor, which is the moment a settled child wakes up. The bear sconce puts a rotary switch on the body for exactly this reason.

If the sconce is being wired anyway, it is worth asking whether the electrician can put a second switch by the door on the same circuit. Two-way switching costs very little at first-fix and solves the other half of the problem: turning the light on before carrying a child into a dark room.

Avoid putting a nursery light on a dimmer unless the bulb is specified as dimmable at the same time. A non-dimmable LED on a dimmer flickers at the bottom of the range and fails early, and the failure looks like a fault in the fixture rather than in the pairing.

From the shop

Bear Nursery Wall Sconce, Adjustable Iron Wall Lamp with Wood Base, 8 Colors

Hardwired to a standard wall box with no visible cord, on a round rubberwood backplate. The head rotates and tilts on a chrome swivel, and the rotary switch sits on the lamp body.

View the bear nursery sconce — 8 colours & current price

What should I check once it is on the wall?

Four things, all of them faster to fix on the day than a month later.

• Check the backplate sits flat against the wall. A gap at one edge means the box is proud, and the fixture will rock every time the head is aimed.
• Aim the head with the room dark, not in daylight. Angles chosen at noon are always too flat, and the joint gets tightened at the wrong setting.
• Look at the fixture from inside the cot. Lie a phone camera on the mattress facing up; if the bulb is visible in that frame, the angle or the position is wrong.
• Confirm nothing is within reach from any surface a child can climb. A changing table pushed under a light changes the geometry completely.

The camera trick is worth doing properly. A shade 7.1 in (18 cm) across hides the bulb well from standing height and not always from below, and the difference between the two is invisible until somebody looks from the right place.

What if the wall cannot be opened at all?

Fit a plug-in fixture, route the cable properly, and treat it as a stage rather than a compromise.

Rented flats, finished plaster and solid masonry all make a new box expensive. The practical alternative is a fixture with a cord, mounted at the same height you would have chosen for a box, with the cable run down and along a skirting rather than diagonally to the nearest socket. Cable clips every 12 in keep it flat enough that nothing gets a grip on it.

Two rules keep this safe in a child's room. Nothing loops. A cable that hangs in a curve is a handle, and a straight run pinned to a skirting is not. And nothing crosses a walking line, particularly the route between the cot and the door.

The full set of routing options, including in-wall routes where the plaster can be opened after all, is set out in hiding a wall light power cord that is too long. If the fixing itself is the question rather than the cable, the anchor choices for each wall type are in the best drywall anchor for wall decor, and how to remove it.

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