Hello everyone. This forum is great and the help provided is amazing. I am looking for recommendations for design and the appropriate system for the front yard. All the way on the left side there is a pear tree and a small burning bush on the right, lighthng that up and maybe the flag in the front would be a plus. I am open to any and all ideas. Thanks in advance if willing to help a newbie out.
Beautiful home, Jackson. Please see my diagram of one of your photos for a possible approach to lighting your house and yard. For the house, we'd flank the arched window with a pair of spotlights (38° should work fine here). You could light the sections of smokey blue siding flanking the three-paned window on the second level with a pair of gutter mounted mini-spotlights. Illuminate your flag and your porch column. Let's also light the two wall sections flanking the window to the right of your front door. Depending on what you're open to, there's numerous options for lighting your garage. You could of course illuminate the gabled area above the garage. Will your wall sconces be part of your lighting plan? If so, you may want to consider dialing back their brightness and going with a color temperature that matches what you're using on the rest of the house. If you aren't in love with your wall sconces, you could switch them out for some up/down or down lights that work with your home's architecture. If you think you can hide wiring well enough and you have the clearance below your garage door frame, you could mount puck lights or hardscape lights that softly light your crisp white garage doors. Those are just some options for you to consider. You could go with one or some combination of those ideas. Because of the light colored surfaces on your house, walkway, and planting beds, I think you'll want to light your trees and shrubs judiciously. For instance, you could uplight the red leaved trees at each end of the main section of your house and then maybe highlight the clipped shrubs (yellow stars) or the group of white starred shrubs or the trio of bright green shrubs to the right of the door. Between the lights for your flag, column, and wall sections to the left of your front door, you may find that creates enough "fill" light to illuminate that wall immediately to the left of your front door (orange graphic). If not, you could always add a spotlight there (38°). Finally, consider doing something that your neighbors with lighting aren't doing. Sure you could uplight both of those red leaved trees/shrubs I mentioned earlier. Or you could light the tree on the right from the left-- so that its shadow is projected onto that large garage door. Or...you could tuck a downlight under the eaves above each of those two trees and light them from above. Or, or, or. Btw, when you're deciding which of your foundation plants to illuminate, think about how they perform at different times of year. Is there something that looks spectacular at a particular time of year that you want to see illuminated once the sun sets? Well, hope this helps to get your creative juices going.
