Hi everyone! We recently finished a landscaping project and are looking for ideas to light the house. I am attaching some pictures and would appreciate any insight/ideas you have. Thanks!
For best results you buy philips hue vs wiz, place the lighting fixture a few feet away from the feature, and give it a sideways angle. It maintains an even and somewhat subtle ambient lighting for the nearby area by shining it alongside the wall. Wide-angle outdoor flood light with low wattage is recommended for this as opposed to a spotlight.
Some suggestions: Front garage wall - 3 MR16 spot lights with 3W, 15 degree bulbs. Adding a frosted lens to each light will soften the ridges of the wall siding, producing a more subtle, “washed” appearance. In contrast, the hex louvre lens will enhance the siding ridges when used with 15 degree bulbs. Lenses are cheap; buy a mix and experiment to see what you like. Garage gable - gutter mount a pair of Jolt spot lights, one in each corner, with 38 degree bulbs. 2W may or may not be enough. Buy a pair of 4W bulbs as well and experiment. The Jolts are small and less noticeable during the day compared to other spot lights. Second story - gutter mount a pair of flood lights. A pair of Wide Splash should work well as you can adjust the lumens. Front yard - a set of path lights at each of the steps on the sidewalk to the house and a MR16 spot to uplight the tree. Start with a 38 degree bulb for the spot. You can increase to a 60 degree when the tree gets bigger. If you have the bucks to spend and if Volt ever gets it back in stock, consider a ShadowMaster for the first sidewalk step to highlight the flower bed, the step and the concrete landing area next to the sidewalk. The Coachman path and area light might be another option for the first step. Install dimmable LED smart bulbs in the garage and front porch fixtures, such that you can time them to come on when the transformer turns on and adjust the brightness to match the landscape lighting. Finally, make sure all of the bulb colors match. Slightly yellow 2700K is most commonly used, but you may prefer the whiter 3000K. Whichever one you choose, match the house LED lights with the landscape lighting color. There is nothing more disconcerting than mixed light colors in the same installation. Don't be afraid to experiment with angles, bulbs and lenses. That's part of the fun of getting the installation you find most satisfying. Bob
I used Top Dogs with 3 watt bulbs, 2700K, and 15-degree beam angles to uplight the columns on the front of our house. I see that there's a stone ledge/cap on your columns, so you might need to move the lights further away from the foundation to minimize the shadows if you choose to uplight the columns. To add to Bob's post: Maybe also consider some path lights in the large mulched bed, placed near the front of it. Pathlights leading from the driveway to the front door is another idea. Uplighting the tree near the street will look awesome. I held off trying to illuminate the second story of our house and an idea is to focus first on the ground level, then see what you think. I chose to do our lighting in phases... I seem to learn a lot from each phase and it makes planning for the next one that much easier...
