Hi. I have a few questions as to placement of spots and angle of optics. Between the front windows things are very narrow. Also what about the competition with the porch lights? Things are less narrow on the other front windows by the garage. So less narrow optic here I imagine. But won’t different angle optics cause different light intensity and an uneven spread? Also the side of the house with the chimney and the small alcove next tot he chimney. What’s the best strategy here? thanks for any advice. JC
Wonderful house, Jc. There isn't one single perfect way to light a house. IMO, the goal should be a plan that cohesively lights the features of the house you like best. I've diagrammed some of your photos to show just two possible approaches. In the first three photos, I'm basically lighting your portico columns and I'm lighting both the detailed brickwork at the corners of your house along with the adjacent wall section. In the second plan I'm lighting the chimney, the portico columns and only the brickwork at the outer corners. As long as your fixtures are the same distance from the wall and aimed at the same angle, the intensity of your lights will be consistent. OTOH, consider the garage gable in our first plan. The light will be a bit brighter on the lowest points of your gable trim than at the top simply because the light has to travel farther to reach the top. But that's a different phenomenon. For the record, the areas shown with narrow angles should be 15° beam spread and the larger angles should be 38° spots. I think you have three ways you can integrate your portico column fixtures into your lighting plan. You could dial the wattage down to something comparable to your landscape lighting (15W or 20W incandescents, preferably frosted), you can switch to something that flatters your columns like an up/down sconce, or you could leave them off. Hope this helps and good luck with your project.
Thanks for the advice! I love the ideas. I can’t decide which I like more. One question: both for land don’t light the corner between the garage and house. It’s a dead space. Is wrong to try to light the corner itself so both garage and house corner are lit?
Glad to help, Jc. Like I said, those are only a couple of different lighting plan approaches. Ultimately you get to decide which walls and features you want to light in whatever way you want. You could place a fifteen degree spot to the right of each of those windows in that corner, if you wanted. Having said that, keep in mind that these lights are deceptively powerful. I think you'll be surprised at how much different surfaces are illuminated by indirect and reflected light
Wow. Phenomenal job, Jc Park. That's even more beautiful than I imagined it would be! I especially love the shadows on your upper portico columns (from your wall sconces). I hope you're happy with the light output you chose. Since people often ask questions about wattage and beam spread choice, feel free to share what you used and any tips you think might help others. Glad you found my recommendations helpful and I hope you'll enjoy your home even more now.
I used the G4 Infiniti 30 (the one with the lowest output) and the 24 degree spread. Less is definitely more in this endeavor. It’s the shadows that are the most beautiful. Placing the lights only on the corners and portico, using a low output light and a narrow beam looks great, much better than lighting the whole building brightly.
I think it can be hard at first for many people to think less in terms of wattage (energy) and more in terms of lumens (brightness). When you're so used to thinking about incandescent bulbs, 2W can sound like an anemic amount of light. I also think it's easy to forget that the light on most path lights will be amplified by the reflective paint beneath a canopy. Btw, I love that bulb shield on those infiniti lights is frosted. I added frosted lenses to the lights on my house and it really softens the edges of beams and makes details a little less sharp (which is the effect I actually prefer on my plant trees and shrubs). Thanks for sharing your photo and product info.
