I would greatly appreciate some ideas on designing a lighting plan for the front of our house. Most of our neighbors do not have any landscape lighting, so we would want it to be conservative and not too bright. We would like to subtly highlight the main features like the gables and arch entryway, etc. Thanks!
Beautiful house! A bit tricky for a landscape lighting design given the architecture and pre-existing light fixtures. With the garage lanterns and wide driveway, there are not many features to illuminate on the right side - you could consider surface mounting a spotlight under the window on the far right. Any of our lamp-ready MR16 spotlights could look beautiful. For the left side, you could highlight the window bay with (2) MR16 spotlights as well and also use a floodlight on the small tree (crepe myrtle?) to highlight the tree while also simultaneously casting a beautiful shadowing effect on the wall behind. The Gentle Splash Cast Brass Flood Light & Wall Wash could look beautiful on the tree and offers interchangeable lens options to help soften/diffuse light further if desired. For the archway/front door area, (2) compact uplights would likely be idea for adding subtle illumination to this area. I'd personally consider a highly compact fixture we/ subtle output - the Atom Mini Integrated LED Brass Spotlight could look beautiful. Without gutters, the second story peaks can't easily be illuminated with a typical approach. From what I can see, uplights would need to be surface mounted directly to the roof (image included below for reference). This is entirely doable, just not a common approach. It may be best to consult w/ a professional installer for this portion; water intrusion would be the main concern after drilling into the roof. Mini spotlights would likely be most ideal for second story areas. Because you desire subtle illumination, wattage wise for the bulbs, I'd recommend no higher than 3 Watt bulbs for the MR16s, 3W for the flood light bulb, and 2W for the MR11s/mini spotlights.
Thanks for the ideas! For the existing garage lanterns, I prefer to use them for indirect lighting if possible. I'm not sure if there is some way to use a baffle or shield so you are not looking directly at a hot light, but instead get a soft down light against the brick. Does that make sense? I've never seen that, but it seems doable and would complement the rest of the lighting. Thoughts?
Maybe I should just change the garage carriage lights to an indirect up/down light to complement the rest of the lighting plan.
Downlighting could certainly be done. My concern with lanterns, whether uplighting or downlighting - when ON, the illumination from the lanterns could "wash out" the illumination from the landscape lights. When OFF, the uplights or downlights would cast a somewhat unsightly shadow of the lantern either on the wall above or ground below. Personally, I love the combo effect sconces offer; particularly for garage lights and entrance areas like the picture you posted. If possible, I would certainly recommend considering them. We do offer a low-voltage Ultra Premium Cast Brass Up/Down Sconce that could match the landscape lights as well.
