Good day everyone, I'm so excited to have found this great forum - thank you. I'm a total novice and want to light up the property from the front of my house to the pool area to the trees surrounding my property line. But I'd like to start out with the front of the house. I've taken a picture of the house and plotted the lighting where i think it would be best. My question is: Do you think this is the proper layout? I'm considering the VOLT® (6) G2 Fat Boy Spotlight Kit, do you think that's the right kit for what I've outlined, even the ones on the gutters? What specific lights would you use. I think the gutter lights would be different ones, so i might need to just not buy the kit and instead buy specific lights, but which? I would like to have a subtle lit look and not spotlight corners. The second picture (from google search) is that of a house with the spotlight look i'm trying to not have. Is it a matter of pointing the lighting out more and not towards the house? Sorry for all the questions. Very much appreciate your support and look forward to your help. -david xample where the corners are lite and then they fade away, i'd like to not have that look, instead the whole area is lit.
post: 4547, member: 4623"]Bump - Any recommendations?[/QUOTE] There's a lot to unpack in your question. I'll try to address some of your main concerns/challenges. First, when you refer to "spotlight corners" I'm assuming you mean you want to minimize the sharp definition of the beam spread that's created when the light from your spotlight is cut off by the glare guard edge. The primary way you address that is with frosted lenses that soften the light output and blur the edges. You'll also see less definition of the light beam depending on how you aim the fixture and the further away from the facade of the house the fixture is placed. For instance, in the photo of the house with multiple gables I've attached here, you can see that the lower level lights are close enough to the foundation of the house that they are grazing the walls and the texture of the brick and stone are well defined. If you look at the illuminated gable above the front door and the bay window, you'll notice that the lighting is more muted. That's because the fixtures are mounted on the gutter, further away from the facade. The fixtures are probably smaller than those staked on the ground too so that would also determine the effect created. I think your plan is fine but I think one challenge for you will be where you can place you ground staked lights, given the where your shrubs are planted. Uplights staked close to the foundation would show off the stone detail but at such a close distance, the siding edges might create an undesired striping effect. That effect is less likely to occur with the gutter mounted fixtures because they aren't as close to the facade of the house. If you want to avoid the challenge of trying to uplight the section of the house to the right of the garage, one way you could do that is to simply focus on illuminating the shrubs a bit brighter and then allow the spillover and reflected light to indirectly illuminate that section of the house. You could also use a downlight or two on the gutters to illuminate the garden area from above. This, imo, would give your lighting plan a little bit more complexity (by introducing more than one lighting effect) and also give your lighting plan more dimension (by highlighting your foundation shrubs). Anyway, you say what you don't want but you don't give an idea of what you consider to be subtle lighting. My idea of subtle lighting might be something like the photo here with the palm trees. Finally, if you want more control over the final look of your lighting plan, I would buy my fixtures a la carte. The kits are great if you want to get up and running quickly and you don't want to have to make too many decisions about fixture types, beam spreads, etc. Choosing your own transformer and the best fixtures for different sections of your house and garden will give you more control over the final look. You can choose the brightness of your lamps, beam spread, and accessories. Hope this helps.
