Good evening, We had Volt lighting at our previous house and LOVED it. We recently moved and are hoping to get some design help. We appreciate everyone's time.
Congratulations on your awesome new home, Keith. I diagrammed your photos to show you one straightforward lighting plan. If you've had a chance to review some of the recommendations made here in the past, you've probably gotten the general gist of designing a lighting plan. If not, I encourage you to check out the galleries and previous threads for ideas on how to best light your home. In a nutshell, I'm recommending that you light the larger brick sections of your house and garage that are visible in your photos. When a home is as stately and imposing as yours is, I think it can be tempting to really "bling" it out from end to end and top to bottom with bright lights. Nothing wrong with that. But IMO, sometimes less is more. For instance, rather than uplighting the sections of your facade where the orange graphics are, you could choose not to light those sections. Or instead you could indirectly light those facade sections by projecting a light towards each of those small trees (so that their shadows are projected onto the facade) to either side of your wall sconces. I've also indicated areas where you might highlight the contours of your long walkway/driveway. I think it would be worth the effort to have path lights on alternating sides of your path, if at all possible. You could also uplight that stand of trees in front of your house. You'll of course want to flank them with spotlights (or well lights) so that you can enjoy the view from both inside and outside of the house. One thing I recommend you give some careful thought to is the color temperature you choose for your house lights. if you haven't already, give some serious thought to what kind of mood you want to create for your home. You've got a a neutral palette of browns and tans. I've found that 3000K soft white lamps can make certain neutral color palettes feel chilly and commercial. If you want a warmer feel to your house, I would definitely go with the 2700K and maybe reserve 3000K for some of your plants and trees. Ultimately, though, it comes down to personal preference. We like what we like, and you may decide that you like the slightly cooler 3000K. I'd just encourage you to try them both out before you commit to a color for all of your house fixtures. Hope this helps to get you started.
A ShadowMaster in the shrub bed by the mailbox, with a tall enough riser to cast a pattern across the entire front driveway entrance, would be interesting.
Beautiful house! Excellent recommendations from Meso & Bob as always. The only thing I'd urge a bit of caution on is the up lights directly under those beautiful front door lanterns. The conflicting light outputs could diminish either or both of the outputs upward or downward, and maybe cast an unsightly abstract shadow from the lantern on that gorgeous entryway wall. Another option you could consider could be a pair of compact spotlights in those nice planter pots. They'd be off to the side out from under the lanterns, you could still angle and adjust the light output to highlight the areas above the lanterns, and depending how the spots were positioned in the pots, they could provide beautiful natural shadow effects on the wall from the branches of the plants. Just another option for you to consider if possible. I personally get a kick out of trying to conceal lights in planter pots and other little niche spots
