Hey Evan/anyone else! I'm finally getting around to installing some landscape lighting. If you have any suggestions, all are welcome. One point is just to the left of the front porch is a recessed section with a japanese mapleish type small ornamental tree and it's kind of darker back in there. Mainly thinking spots and pathway lights. I'll be running a wire to more properly illuminate my flag at the end of the driveway (not shown) and will be using two transformers. I'm thinking of having the flag and pathway lights on dusk til dawn and the spots on dusk til x o'clock. Again, thank you!
I'd be happy to help with some general recommendations - beautiful home! A lot comes down to personal preference & budget - a combination of uplighting and pathlighting is typically the go-to for DIYers. Here is a balanced approach for you: For the uplights (marked in yellow), any of our lamp-ready spotlights would be ideal really. If you wanted a low-profile option, in-ground lights could be ideal as well. Both can look beautiful - depends on your personal preference and budget. For a lamp-ready MR16 fixture, I'd likely go no brighter than a 5W LED MR16 bulb - 3W likely more ideal IMO. Narrowest beam spreads for the columns (15-degree), 38-degree for other spots other than the wider window bay to the right where a 60-degree could be ideal. Placing the fixtures close to the wall to help focus more of the illumination up the textured stone and less directly on the glass would likely be the ideal approach IMO; likely closer than the standard recommendation of 12". This technique is called "grazing". For the path lights (blue), any of our classic path lights would be ideal and provide beautiful illumination along the entry path. The 3W G4 LED bulb is our most popular. For the small tree (red), another MR16 spotlight with a 60-degree spread could be ideal, or if you expect the tree to grow exponentially and have a decent sized canopy you could consider a floodlight such as the Gentle Splash Cast Brass Flood Light. Adding some illumination to the 2nd story (orange), could help balance the design, but without gutters to this would likely involve either drilling surface mounts directly into your roof or downlighting from the roofline. This would really come down to personal preference as to how you wanted to best execute it.
