Hello all, I did some browsing but havnt come across a home similar to mine with the garage bump out and the front porch. Can someone please help me with the lighting lay out idea. I like the spotlight look but just can’t figure out best placements aside from doing each column. thanks! p.s it not allowing me to add the picture of my home. Any pointers how to add??
You just need to post a photo that doesn’t exceed the 1MB max. Easiest way to do this is to lower the resolution of your image. I would try to keep as much of the parts you want to light in the frame of your image and crop out any parts that we don’t need to see in order to understand your scenario. HTH
mesodude2, thank you for your help. My imagine is two big to load as one whole picture so I broke it up into 2 imagines. House side and garage bump out side.
View attachment 2315 View attachment 2316 View attachment 2314 Glad to help. You have numerous options for creating a coherent lighting plan but I’ve diagrammed your photos to illustrate just a few here. As you can see, there are many ways to define the footprint of your property and highlight the architecture of your home. Your only limit is your budget and your creativity. For instance, think about what or whether you might want to plant some shrubs in front of the two outer porch columns (see photo with green graphics) and illuminate the shrubs or trees or ornamental grass there (either instead of or in addition to) illuminating the columns. The yellow graphics are meant to indicate up lights but if the soffits/overhangs are deep enough for you to hide puck lights, you could easily include some down lights in your plan as well. Also consider using other architectural features to your advantage. The black roofs and gutters will make it easy for you to hide black light fixtures (if you so choose) and the black wiring that you’ll need to route up to fixtures installed on the upper level. Additional tips: if you haven’t already planted shrubs or trees near the foundation, keeping them a foot or so away from the foundation will give you more flexibility to install and aim your ground level light fixtures. Now is probably a good time to make sure you can easily install path lights or other fixtures on either side of your walkway. With light grey and black being the primary colors on your house, I would recommend 2700K color temp lights to warm things up a bit. IMO, 3000K (which is fine for your trees and shrubs) or cooler can make a house look stark or almost chilly. But that’s just me.
Mesodude2, thank you so much for your layout I really like them all. Just had a minor question, would it be over kill if I did lighting on each side of the windows by the garage or is that too much? Appreciate your feedback bad. Been a great help and exciting to get this underway now having a plan
Again, glad to help. Full disclosure, I’m a DIYer like yourself. I don’t work for VOLT and I don’t get compensated in any way. With that out of the way, I try to avoid the “s” word (should) whenever possible. Brightness and number of fixtures are an individual preference. There’s no one single layout formula that’s necessarily better than all the others. I’ve attached several photos to show you some different lighting plan approaches. If you need some inspiration to help you decide on an overall plan, I strongly encourage you to look for landscape lighting projects online and also walk or drive around your community and take note of the lighting layouts that impress you the most. And be sure to consider all kinds of architecture, houses, apartment buildings, commercial buildings, churches, etc. Notice how people uplight their trees and where they place their path lights, etc. My personal philosophy is that less is more. I think houses look more interesting when select areas are illuminated in a way that shows off the house without necessarily showing off every single wall or architectural element. But you also have to consider your own reasons for installing lighting. Why are you lighting your property. Is your emphasis curb appeal or is safety more important to you? In some instances, going a bit brighter or including more fixtures makes sense. For example, if you or visiting guests or someone in your household are visually impaired, it might be important for you to fully illuminate your walkway, for instance. The only other thing I’ll add for now is that it might be a good idea to start with a conservative plan and live with it for a while. You can always add, move, or remove fixtures once you have a clearer idea of the impact of your lighting layout. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll want to/need to tweak your lighting plan multiple times before you get it exactly the way you want to. Then as you add landscaping or other features to your yard, it will change again. You have a light colored house and walkway. You don’t need to project your lights very high/far so I would start out in the 2W-3W range, if I were you. If you have a dark night sky, I can almost guarantee you that 5W or more will seem like baseball stadium lighting initially. You really can create an impactful lighting plan with fairly low lumens light fixtures. HTH
