I just completed my first lighting project and am looking for any constructive criticism/suggestions for improvement. I have included night time photos. Attached is a photo of the entire project: I am looking to see what if any suggestions anyone may have for the darkness here: Attached is a close up of the path: And lastly, attache is a photo of the window, that area to me looks dark, any thoughts/suggestions? TIA! The project as a whole only used Top Dogg Spotlights and the visible path lights.
Volt mini all-star twinnovator path light to illuminate area in front of window without shining light into window. I would add another in front bed to illuminate boulder, too.
Good start. I've marked up one of your photos to show you how I might light your house a bit differently. Feel free to take my recommendations with a grain of salt. First, these look a lot brighter than I suspect they actually are, so I'd be interested to hear what wattages you're using in your fixtures. My main suggestion would be configure your light beam spreads to fit the section of the facade you want to highlight. For instance, the spread from spotlight to the right of the garage is spot on (no pun intended). That spread would probably also work on the lunette below that gable above your front porch (more on that shortly) but it's too wide for the narrower sections of the facade you're trying to light. I also might spread your path lights a bit more. If you're keeping your wall sconces as part of your lighting plan (more on that shortly), I think you can cover more ground by spreading your path lights a bit wider apart. If you can get light up to that lunette (one of the coolest features of your facade) in that gabled area (with a spotlight or a soffit light), I highly recommend that. It looks like your sconces might be muting the rest of your lighting plan. If you're planning to keep those, I would dial back their brightness to something comparable to your LL fixtures. If you aren't in love with your sconces, I would swap them out for some up/down sconces that fit with your home's architectural style. Finally, if you want to add some light to that area below that window, you could move the path light back closer to the wall or you could use something like a beacon well light to illuminate the wall (which would help you avoid lighting the window). As Jason suggested, you could illuminate those borders (I'd recommend a beacon type of well light there as well. HTH
Thank you for the suggestions, the photos look brighter than it is, I used 3w-2700k in the path lights and 5w-2700k in the spot lights. Regarding the soffit light, love the idea, any suggestions on getting a wire up there from the ground that’s aesthetically pleasing?
Hi Jason, I like your idea, how would you configure the the two lights? For the stone, would it be one on the stone and the other on the ground near the stone? Similar setup for the window? TIA
Easily the most discreet approach to getting a fixture up there is to gutter mount a spotlight at that location. Routing the cable up through the downspout (green line) would hide it entirely. Alternatively, you could wedge, tape, or glue your cable along the exterior of your downspout and then along the soffit and/or downspout (blue line). If you go the exterior route and you're really persnickety (like I am), you might opt to paint your cable to match the downspout and/or the soffit. You should be able to get away with one of the more discreet mini spotlights here but you'll want to confirm that your fixture will fit gutter mount hardware (I think most, if not all spotlights do). You will definitely want to spend the extra six bucks for a 25 ft lead wire.
