Fantastic home, Justin. I diagrammed your photo to show one possible approach. In a nutshell, I'd uplight all the sections of the house I've indicated. At a minimum, I'd illuminate the sections I've indicated for the lower level. But I think having all four of those gables illuminated would look stunning. I also indicated a few areas where I think you might consider installing path lights. In addition to enhancing safety, path lights can help show off your foundation plantings. Also, often when only the architecture is illuminated, a house can appear to be floating when viewed from a distance. Path lights act as "fill" lights by illuminating the landscaped areas around your house and adding dimension to your overall lighting scene. Because I suspect there's not a lot of ambient light at night where your house is sited and because the brick and stonework are fairly light, I think you should carefully consider the overall brightness level you've envisioned for your house. IMHO, people (both in their landscape lighting plans and with line voltage fixtures installed on their homes) often tend to think bright=impressive. Rather than light up your house to make it look exactly the way it does during daytime, you want to illuminate it in a way that shows off its most impressive features but yet still leaves a bit of mystery. My own house is a large but modest single family home in a parkland setting. I completed my lighting install recently and it's breathtaking the effect a half a dozen lights grazing the brickwork and porch columns has created. Definitely one of the most satisfying home improvement projects I've every done.
Thank you so much for the help!!! With your recommendation of not being to bright what wattage are you thinking? (2w 2700k?) I was looking at the kit which includes the fat boy spot lights, would this be the best for the bottom level? Also, what type of gable light do you recommend and how do I attach it? Sorry for all the questions, and I really appreciate the help on this project!!
Glad to help, Justin. The low profile All Star mini would be my recommendation for the gutter mounted lights. When you order them, you should be presented with a gutter mount attachment option. Unless you are really comfortable working on a ladder and/or have someone there to spot you, I highly recommend you have someone like your roofer, painter, or window washer mount those for you on the gutters. The fatboys will work great for your needs uplighting the rest of the house. If your budget allows, though, you should definitely consider some of the other spotlight models as well. The kits are a great value but bear in mind that the included bulbs are 5W with a 38 degree beam spread. While the light color and beam spreads might suit your needs, the 5W might be a tad bright. Obviously you can replace the bulbs but at that point, it’s probably worth considering whether buying your lights individually might be a better value.I really wanted the ability to choose my transformer and customize all of my fixtures (bulbs, light color temp, beam spread, etc) individually so I bought my lighting system a la carte. Volt is having a nice sale this week on spotlights and they have sales pretty much weekly. If memory serves me, they offered me a first time buyer discount on my initial order. I would strongly advise you to talk to a CS rep about your overall lighting plan and what you’d like to achieve. They can then tell you how to get the most bang for your buck when you purchase your lights, transformer, and accessories for your system.
Beautiful! Excellent placement and it really brings out the texture of the brick - gives a different dimension to the home at night.
