On a farmhouse the gate sits farther from the house than it does on a city plot. The boundary wall runs on, and the pillars are often wider, or oddly narrow after a contractor "adjusted" the drawing. Guests see the gate first. This brief reaches us on WhatsApp from Delhi NCR and western UP, from Pune and the Bengaluru outskirts, from Goa and the Chennai coast, from Hyderabad plots, and from Kolkata and Guwahati, where humidity is the issue. Farmhouses are everywhere in India and the weather is not one story.
The pan-India range is the cast aluminium gate lights catalogue. Padma casts the bodies in Aligarh: gate heads, wall lights, hanging lights and pole lanterns. This note is for homeowners, architects specifying elevations, and dealers who want to stock cast aluminium outdoor lights for farmhouse work. The general checklist is in how to choose a gate light and the monsoon detail is in monsoon and gate lights. What follows is what I ask when the photo shows a long compound instead of a city plot.
What a large gate brief usually includes
- The jobs. Pillar and gate lanterns, driveway poles, boundary wall lights, then the porch. Order only the jobs the building has.
- The size. Measure the pillar cap, not the screenshot. Many Indian farmhouse caps are 12 to 18 inches, and some are thinner after a site "adjustment".
- The metal. Die-cast aluminium from the Aligarh works. Iron can stain plaster after wet seasons. We won't stamp a lab ingress code we haven't tested, and we won't rename a wipe as a coastal grade.
- The climate. The body metal is the same everywhere, but the finish conversation changes: dust and monsoon in the north, salt on the coast, heat on the Deccan, humidity in the east.
- Architects. Send a drawing, the pillar width, and the code and finish. We reply with body, powder coat, B22, sizes and trade terms (see the architect spec sheet).
- Dealers and trade. Trade lots start at 10 pieces and one to five pieces are at retail list, with batch finish, billed in INR ex-works Aligarh. The catalogue is on padmalights.com, not IndiaMART. Terms are on the About page and freight is on shipping.
How climate changes the brief
North plains. Delhi NCR, western UP, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan mean stone or brick pillars, often 12 to 18 inches at the cap, taller compound walls, dust that ages an antique wipe, and July as a wall of rain. Punjab often means wider entrances and more pairs of pillars than a city house.
Coast. On the Mumbai to Pune fringe, in Goa, Kerala, Chennai and Vizag, salt air and year-round humidity hit finish and door joints harder than inland dust does. The body still wants cast aluminium. The wipe conversation changes, and we won't call a wipe marine grade.
Deccan and the inland south. Hyderabad, the Bengaluru outskirts and parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka mean heat, dry dust and long approaches. Thin sheet fittings look tired by the second summer. When guests travel fifty metres before reaching the porch, a consistent head and finish along the drive matters.
East and Northeast. In the outskirts of Kolkata and in Assam, moisture never fully leaves the air. Glass milks faster if the latch doesn't shut. The metal rules are the same, but we are more careful about joints.
Hills. Cooler air, more dew and sometimes wind. It is still outdoor metal. Size follows the pillar, and finish follows how wet the site stays overnight.
The common thread is distance. If the gate lantern is undersized, the approach looks unfinished from the road, even when the house itself is finished.
Four jobs: pillar, drive, boundary and house
Pillar and gate. Post-top cast aluminium gate lights sit on the cap, and the seat you measured decides the footprint, not the crop in the photograph. Farmhouse pillars are often wider than city ones, until they aren't: some compounds end up with a thin plastered column that photographs tall and measures small. Measure the cap and send a photo with a tape in frame if you can. A head that looks stranded on a narrow cap is the sizing miss we correct most often. More in gate light sizing.
Driveway and approach. Pole lanterns run along the internal drive or from the main road to the gate. We die-cast poles from 2 ft to 15 ft. Spacing is the electrician's and architect's call. Ours is to supply one consistent head and finish, so the approach doesn't look like three shops contributed leftovers. More on poles in pole lanterns.
Boundary and compound returns. Wall lights go on the compound wall face or on the returns near the gate, with the same metal rules as the pillar. If the gate and the wall are visible in one glance from the road, match the finish. A black gate light next to an antique wall light on the same elevation is how WhatsApp arguments start after installation.
House elevation. Wall and hanging fittings near the porch count as outdoor if they see dew. Order the jobs the building has. A mood board that wants one of everything fills a truck with fittings nobody wires. The broader home brief is in exterior lighting for an Indian home, and project-scale runs are in builders and societies.
Weather and finish
We cast aluminium. Under a shop tube, iron can pass for the same metal. After a few wet seasons the iron one marks white plaster, while aluminium forms a surface layer and largely stops. That is why we push aluminium for anything that faces rain, salt spray or long humidity, on a farmhouse or a city plot. The longer version is aluminium versus iron.
Powder coat is the skin, and antique gold or copper is a wipe. Desert and highway grit age the wipe inland, and coastal salt ages it differently and faster near the sea. Neither turns aluminium into rust. Matte black shows dust sooner on a farm road, and antique hides grit longer inland. On the coast the talk is about joints and honesty about the wipe. A tender that wants a German-looking ingress code we haven't measured won't get one from this desk. Door joints decide whether the glass goes milky, so the latch has to shut and the wire path can't become a bowl. Finish notes are in powder coat and antique.
For architects
Architects don't need a brochure for a farmhouse gate. They need lines that survive a site meeting: die-cast aluminium body, powder coat (plus antique wipe if that is the look), B22 as standard, height and width against the cap, and empty or glass and LED as quoted. We haven't lab-tested IP65, and I won't sign a number we haven't measured.
Send this on WhatsApp at +91 70176 62533: the drawing title block or an elevation crop, the pillar cap measurement, preferred codes from the catalogue (or a photo of the look), the finish, the count of gate pairs, poles and wall lights, and the city or a climate note. The reply quotes the codes on your crop and includes a workshop photograph of that casting. The one-page pattern is in what I send architects for a spec sheet. Terms and the works address are on the About page, and freight is on shipping.
For dealers and trade buyers
If you stock outdoor lights, whether as a dealer, a wholesaler or a works that wants cast aluminium farmhouse and gate fittings without building the moulds, the counter is WhatsApp at the Aligarh works, not a portal inbox. Say whether you are a dealer or a homeowner, because the desk treats them differently. The numbers are on the About page and are not repeated here as a rate card.
Batch finish matters on a farmhouse elevation and on a dealer floor. The same mould and the same coating run mean antique or matte black doesn't drift between boxes, so ask for one finish across the gate pair, the driveway heads and the boundary returns if they share a glance from the road. The full range is 201 models on padmalights.com. How to buy from the works rather than the bazaar is in buying in Aligarh from the workshop, why lookalikes on portals are not us is in we are not on IndiaMART, and project language for societies and developers is in builders and societies.
Questions we get
- What size farmhouse gate light do I need?
- Size follows the pillar cap, not the photo crop. Measure the width, and the depth if the seat is rectangular. More in gate light sizing.
- Cast aluminium or iron for outdoor farmhouse lights?
- Cast aluminium, for rain, salt and long humidity. Iron can stain plaster after wet seasons. The longer read is aluminium versus iron.
- What should I send for a farmhouse quote?
- A road-facing photo of both pillars, the cap width with a tape in frame, and a count for each job: gate pairs, driveway poles with an approximate height, boundary wall lights and porch fittings. Add the finish, whether heads ship empty or with glass, and the city with a coastal, inland or hill note. Say whether you are the homeowner, the architect or trade.
- What are the dealer minimum order and lead time?
- Lot size and workshop timing are on the About page and shipping. Say trade or homeowner in the first line so the quote isn't written for the wrong desk.
- Are you on IndiaMART?
- No. The catalogue and WhatsApp are the only routes. See why we are not on IndiaMART.
- Do you ship pan-India for farmhouse sites?
- Yes. Dispatch is from Aligarh 202001 and freight is quoted per job. See shipping, and buy from the workshop for buying remotely.
WhatsApp +91 70176 62533 or email padmaenterprises55@gmail.com.