Highlighting the architectural design features outside of your home is an excellent way to make your property stand out. Exterior appearance often leaves a first impression on visitors, so incorporating creative outdoor lighting designs adds a stylish dynamic that also provides accessibility once the sun goes down. Whether it’s the entryway, pool deck, path, or backyard seating area, strategically arranging fixtures to increase functionality and enhance the overall aesthetic makes these places feel more inviting.

The external portion of your home presents an opportunity to implement some of the most creative designs in lighting. In this blog, we’ll examine the different roles of outdoor lighting fixtures and discuss how to display them effectively so that they are captivating and fulfill your vision. 

Creative Architectural Lighting Techniques

When designing an interior, we take pride in creating points of visual interest, and this applies when designing our outdoor spaces as well. There are a few ways you can showcase the architectural features outside your home. Landscape lighting is typically used for grazing, a technique that uses low-lying fixtures to accent natural elements like flower beds or stone walkways. Uplighting is popular for illuminating columns and pillars vertically while moonlighting casts down an ambient, diffused glow to foster a tranquil mood. Silhouetting is another strategy that adds depth using focal points like trees or statues.

Blakley 24 Inch LED Outdoor Wall Light by Eurofase Lighting

Ensuring the entrance to your home is well-lit is essential, especially when you have stairs leading to your front door. Here, the Blakley 24 Inch LED Outdoor Wall Light by Eurofase Lighting does a masterful job of providing a welcoming aura that softly flows from behind its alabaster panels. Its modern style and substantial size make it a structurally sound piece.

Painting the Night with Color and Shadow

Adding layered lighting around the exterior of your house lets you create and highlight focal points in your architecture or landscape that stand out once night falls. Some creative outdoor lighting designs position fixtures to form shadows or emphasize the various colors of your home and landscaping. Outdoor wall lights also do a fantastic job of lining facades while illuminating other features like stairs and foliage for safety and aesthetic appeal.

Kuzco Lighting Sunset 4 Inch LED Outdoor Flush Mount

The five staggered Kuzco Lighting Sunset 4 Inch LED Outdoor Flush Mounts above this stairway are sleek in shape and vibrant in their illumination. Not only do they brighten the steps and nearby flowers below, but they also provide uplighting to draw the eye across the full length of the building. The die-cast aluminum cubic body mimics the industrial feel of the wall, using opal glass to give off an even shine.

Using Water Features with Lighting for Reflective Beauty

If water features are part of your landscaping, emphasizing them with lighting is a must. This includes pools, fountains, and even birdbaths, so whether you’re using lanterns or wall sconces, positioning your fixtures to accentuate your water feature adds visual interest to your landscaping. Water’s reflective nature makes for intriguing light play, and sometimes, various colored bulbs are used to create a stunning display.

Weymouth 3 Light Outdoor Pier Lamp by Hinkley Lighting

In this luxurious mid-century modern pool area, we see a total of six Weymouth 3 Light Outdoor Pier Lamps by Hinkley Lighting. Their traditional and rustic design provides a subtle luminance from the white candled sleeves, which contrast nicely with the black aluminum cast frame. In this blissful scene, the lamps embellish both the water and the deck’s material, which is a combination of stone, rock, and tile.

Mood Lighting for Outdoor Living Areas

Each person utilizes their home’s outdoor living space for different activities, but one of the most universal pastimes that takes place here is winding down at the end of the evening. This means fostering a relaxing vibe that offers just enough light for things like reading and conversation but doesn’t require illuminating the entirety of the space. Mood lighting can come in multiple forms, from accent wall pieces to tabletop fixtures.

Benjamin Franklin 11 Inch Accent Lamp by Arnsberg

This immaculate poolside seating area is lit by the fashionably modern Benjamin Franklin 11 Inch Accent Lamp by Arnsberg. Given its size, this item has incredibly luminous capabilities, and because it’s cordless, it’s also portable. This makes it an excellent accompaniment for reading or stargazing as you’re finishing your glass of wine.

If you’re feeling inspired to enhance the outdoor lighting of your home, browse Capitol’s 2024 Catalog to view the complete collection of fixtures we have in our inventory. We carry a variety of styles on our website, but if you want to see any of these options for yourself in person, head to one of our showrooms today. With enhanced outdoor lighting, you can elevate the aesthetic of your home’s exterior profile in no time.