Requesting advice on lighting design

Hey Ian,

Beautiful property! As far as illumination, from looking at the nighttime shot, most of the home is already well-lit. Adding more lighting fixtures to the areas already highlighted by the lanterns would likely just be overkill.

I'd recommend considering highlighting some of the darker areas revealed in the nighttime photo:


(Marked in yellow) - For the area to the left of the front door, a single uplight placed within 12" of the wall to apply a "grazing" effect could look beautiful. Well/in-ground lights offer a low-profile option for uplighting, but spotlights are more commonly used for easier installation and they also offer more adjustability typically. Any of our MR16 style lamp-ready spotlights could look beautiful. For the bulb, IMO the most important thing would be matching the color temperature of your other outdoor lighting fixtures as closely as possible. I'd likely recommend a 3W MR16 with 110 degree spread and 3000K or 4000K color temperature (maybe try to check the specs of your current fixtures to determine what the color temp is).

For the darker area to the left of this (also marked in yellow), you could consider adding an LED floodlight to highlight the dense shrub and subtlely accent this area in general. If you think you need more fixtures on this viewing angle of the house, a photo showing this angle may help or just apply the same logic mentioned above for uplighting in that area.

(Marked in blue) - any of our classic LED path lights could look beautiful up front and highlight the garden bed while providing area lighting. IMO, I don't believe you'd need many of these fixtures given the existing illumination.

(Marked in orange) - A mini LED spotlight placed on a gutter mount kit could add extra illumination to the 2nd story. I'd keep the bulb wattage low given the existing ambient light from the lantern below.

(Marked in red) - If you were keen on illuminating the dark area above the garage, mini spotlights on gutter mounts could be added to this area as well. My concern would be the unique architecture may likely not be the most ideal for the illumination - lighting from a distance in this manner may just highlight the garage roof mostly; which wouldn't look that appealing. You could consider recessed soffit lights for the upper area - this would require a bit more labor to plan/install.



If you wanted to illuminate this large tree, another (2) MR16 spotlights placed on extension risers could be ideal. Risers could help elevate the spotlights above the shrubs (likely 24" risers at minimum). For the bulbs, likely 5W or 7W with 110-degree beam spreads.