Hey Meso, we just built our house this spring and are looking to do some much needed lighting now that we are approaching the winter. I’ve seen the thorough and helpful advice you’ve given others and thought I would ask for more of the same. I have a general idea of a few path lights, spotlights etc. but would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations. Thanks in advance!
Glad to help, Matt. First, thanks for providing a straight on photo. It can be challenging to give meaningful feedback when I don't have a good view of the foundation or roof structure. I've diagrammed a couple of your photos to suggest some different ways you might light your home. To make this simple, at a minimum, I would light the areas with yellow graphics. I think illuminating your columns and the other areas in yellow will show off the overall structure of your house in a compelling way and it's a modest number of fixtures (if overnighting your house is at all of concern to you). If you wanted to show off more of the upper or lower part of the house and depending on whether you want your barn sconces to be part of your plan , you could also light the areas indicated by orange graphics. One of the biggest questions you need to consider is the overall look and feel of your plan and how much light you want to introduce to your house and surroundings overall. If you've seen my feedback for other users, you know that I like the idea of illuminating at least some sections of the house indirectly. For instance, instead of simply uplighting those orange areas on the first level, you could use them to project the silhouette of a Japanese maple or rose bushes or conifer or other shrub with an attractive branch structure. I should also mention that because the ledge over the soffit is angled downward, you might find that you can effectively light that upper part of the garage with ground staked fixtures. Btw, if you want to avoid light trespass into your bay window, you could use a flood light or area/path light there to illuminate a smaller area beneath the window. In the second photo, the blue circles are where you might place path lights. Keep in mind that with a light colored house and light walkway surface, a little light goes a long way. I point this out because if you'd like your overall plan to be more toward the side of subdued, you want to be careful not to overdo either the brightness of your fixtures or the number of fixtures you include overall. For example, 2W doesn't sound very bright but in a pathlight where there's a light reflecting white surface beneath the canopy, that brightness is amped up somewhat. Anyway, hope this helps to get you started with your lighting plan. . View attachment 1884 View attachment 1885
9 months later and really happy with the way this came out. I’m going to add another uplight between the garage windows and see how it looks from there. You were right, a little does go along way.
Looks great. Yes, bright white surfaces (especially if they have any kind of sheen) can be tricky to light.
