The most expensive gate lantern is the one that looks right in the drawing and wrong on the pillar. Architects don't need another mood board from us. They need a measuring method: a tape across the cap, the width in inches, and a footprint that matches the metal that will sit there. The fittings are on the cast aluminium gate lights range. This note is only the tape. The homeowner's style brief is in how to choose a gate light and the one-page spec pattern is in what I send for a spec sheet. This is the path from tape to quote before a remake leaves Aligarh.
Measure the cap, not the shaft
A post-top lantern sits on the cap, the finished flat (or slightly weathered) top of the pillar. The shaft is what photographs tall from the road. We size against the cap width, and the depth if the cap is rectangular, not against how imposing the column looks in a phone crop.
We make this correction on WhatsApp almost every week. Someone sends a beautiful elevation, the lantern they circled is elegant, and the cap they didn't measure is six inches. The elegant lantern is fourteen inches wide. The result is a hat on a pencil, or a remake. A lantern that looks stranded on a narrow seat is a measuring miss, and it is the mistake we correct most often. More on matching the pillar is in gate light sizing.
The tape method, five minutes on site
- Stand at the pillar, not at the gate leaf. You are measuring the seat for the lantern, not the opening width.
- Put the tape across the cap, from the left edge to the right edge of the finished top. Note the width in inches, and the depth too if the cap is rectangular.
- Photograph the tape in the frame. One clear phone photo beats three paragraphs of "about a foot".
- If there are two pillars, measure both. Matching lights need matching seats. One wide cap and one narrow cap will not take the same head.
- Write height × width from the catalogue against that number. Product pages already carry inches and a millimetre line, so don't invent a third unit system on the drawing.
That is enough for a sized reply. You don't need a full BIM export to ask whether a gate head will sit. You need a number and a picture.
Common Indian pillar widths
These are patterns we see at the works, not a survey. Use them as a check against your site measure, not a substitute for it.
- City pillars, Gurugram included, are often narrower than the elevation crop suggests. Treat the photo as suspect until the tape speaks.
- Many Indian farmhouse caps are about 12 to 18 inches at the top. Some contractor-adjusted columns come out thinner after a site "tweak".
- A six-inch seat needs at least a 6×6 or 6×8 head. Anything smaller disappears.
- A foot-wide seat with a four-inch fitting looks like an afterthought, however pretty the fitting is on its own.
Farmhouse jobs and driveway briefs go further in farmhouse gate lighting. Choosing between gate, wall, hanging and pole lights is a different question, covered in exterior lighting for an Indian home.
How the lantern footprint relates to the cap
Read the lantern's listed width as the footprint you are placing on the seat. The fitting should look as if it belongs to the pillar. It shouldn't float like a birdbath ornament, and it shouldn't overhang so far that the door and glass catch every monsoon sheet.
We list height × width in inches on the site, with millimetres alongside. Use those numbers against your tape. Multi-size gate families exist so one look can step across several caps, but the step still starts from a measured seat and not from a preferred render. Browse gate lights or the full catalogue (about 201 models) once you have the inches.
On the drawing, name cast aluminium, the finish you want (antique is a wipe, not a thick plating), the B22 holder, and whether the head ships empty or with glass. The bulb stays out unless that line says otherwise. We don't publish IP ratings, so ask if a consultant needs an honest finish line instead of a lab figure we haven't measured. The spec email pattern is in architect spec sheet, and finish and climate are in powder coat and antique.
What a sized reply needs
Send the cap width in inches, and the depth if the seat is rectangular, with the tape still in the photo. Add a look or a code from the catalogue PDF, the finish, whether you want an empty head or glass, how many pillars, and the city. The answer names the catalogue size that fits that cap and includes a photo of that casting. The works address and freight are on the About page and shipping.
A made-to-order lantern still needs your sample and a fifty-piece run, so skip that route when a listed size already seats. A shaft height for a drive is a different fitting: our poles run from two feet up to fifteen.
Trade desk: WhatsApp +91 70176 62533 or email padmaenterprises55@gmail.com.