Great site. I’m wanting to illuminate the front of my house, but my lot slopes left to right. Leftmost windows are ground-level, left corner of porch is 37” high, left top step of porch is 38” high, right top step of porch is 47” high, right corner of porch is 53” high, far right windows are 98” and 102” high. My primary objective is to get my home out of the black hole it currently sits in, including illuminating the porch posts. I’d also be curious if there's an approach that would illuminate all of the front facing windows, including those on the porch and the front door, e.g., during the holiday season. Any suggestions for fixture and wattage would be appreciated. Photos attached (shrubs obstructing front left window will be pruned down).
Thanks, a few comments and suggestions. Your beautiful brick house can be a challenge to light - primarily because the bricks have very low reflectance due to their rough surfaces, and being dark red, they absorb all colors in the blue and green spectrum. Because of this, you won't be able to change the color of the bricks (if that was your intention for holiday lighting). Still, you can, of course, create a beautiful architectural and landscape lighting design. The columns are easy to light - just a single spotlight at the base of each column. Considering the presence of the bushes close to the house, I suggest using a surface mount for each spotlight so you can create a perfectly consistent illumination for each column. I suggest using a 3W 38º MR16 LED lamp for each of these spotlights. The width of these beams should allow them to intersect under the porch roof and provide a nice reflected light on the porch. As for lighting the brick surfaces. Position spotlights between windows (on walls with double windows) and center them on walls with no windows. For these spotlights use 7W 60º MR16 LED lamps. For the rest of your property, consider path lights on either side of the front steps and spaced along the driveway - ideally in a staggered pattern, spaced about 10 ft. apart. To make these lights stand out less, maybe add some bushes or garden beds in the bare landscape. Finally, how about a spotlight on each of the two trees in the front? Have fun!
Thanks for the recommendations Steve. Your suggestion of using the 7W MR16 LEDs for the windows is also appreciated. Do I need to be concerned about a difference in brightness between the low windows on the left and the higher windows on the right of the house? I thought about spotlights on the trees but the branches start so far up the trunk, I wasn't sure how that would look. What type of spot would you recommend for the trees. Thanks again for your help. The site is terrific and I'm looking forward to this project.
You're very welcome! Don't be concerned about the brightness difference between the two sides. There are several ways to alter the brightness - the simplest being to move the light closer or farther from the wall - and tilting the fixture forward or backward slightly. As for the trees, if we're talking about spotlights uplighting the trees, I suggest using the All-Star with a 6W 38º MR16 LED Lamps. Use a single spotlight for each tree and stake-mount it about 1 ft. from the trunk on the left side of each tree. Tilt the light back so the hot spot stretches from near the bottom of the tree to the start of the branches. By the way, make sure the column lights also shed light on the underside of the central eaves under the upper peak - over the front door. Adjust the aiming so the eave is as evenly-lit as possible.
had a customer who's house is on a slope as well, and what we did was use the adjustable extension to match the height from other side of house( to get even up lighting) it worked well, as the bushes hide the taller extensions.
