Garage lighting used to consist almost entirely of overhead fixtures that utilized incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes. Today, the options for lighting work and storage areas in your garage are as varied as those for the home. Your choices will largely depend on how you’re using a given area.

Task lights
The beauty of task lighting is that it brings focused light to your work area. Before installing task lights, however, consider which way shadows will be cast and how comfortable you’ll be while working—the light shouldn’t shine in your eyes or block your view of the work surface.

Clamp-on lights
Lights that clamp on to your work surface allow you to adjust lighting for individual projects. If you’re working on something especially detailed, try using a magnifying lens attached to the light.

Under-cabinet fixtures
To illuminate areas under cabinets and shelves, you’ll need to choose between fluorescent and incandescent lights, depending on the nature of the work you plan on doing.

Fluorescent lights are a good option for lighting a workbench beneath a cabinet or shelf because they’re the most energy efficient and burn cooler than incandescents. Since they’re relatively compact, they won’t infringe on valuable workspace, and many are designed to clip together to create a continuous strip.

Incandescents, which include halogen and xenon bulbs, provide more focused lighting than fluorescents and are best for detailed projects. Halogens produce the brightest, most focused light but also generate the most heat. Use low-voltage versions with built-in transformers to light areas under cabinets without raising the temperature. Xenon bulbs last longer and provide the same focused light as halogens without the heat.

Skylights
By nature, most garages have few if any windows. But, if you’re craving natural light in your garage, a perfect solution may be a light tube.

Better even than a skylight for shedding light, a light tube has reflective walls that bounce light back and forth as it descends through the tube. When the light reaches the room, it illuminates the interior space as if it were a light fixture (some tubes come with bulbs for use at night). And because light tubes flex, you can direct light wherever you want.

Installing a light tube is also a more affordable lighting solution than a skylight because it doesn’t require the construction of a shaft.