Excellent outdoor lighting provides a welcoming and luxurious introduction to your home, follow these three tips to create a beautiful and inviting outdoor space.

Featured: Hinkley Lighting Luna Outdoor Wall Light

CURB APPEAL

Add a custom finish to the front of your home with outdoor hanging lanterns and/or wall lanterns.

• Outdoor hanging lanterns should be centered over your front door(s), high enough so that doors may open and close freely.  If you have a picture window or archway above the front door, center the fixture so that it may be seen from inside your home, too.
• Wall lanterns surrounding the front doors should be proportional to your home, typically a ¼ the size of your door from the street. Wall lanterns are also appropriate for rear and side entrances and by garage doors – same rule of thumb applies for these areas.

When in doubt, size up!  Fixtures appear smaller from curbside viewing than most people would imagine.

TASK LIGHTING

Be sure to make your space functional! Task lighting is an important piece of the design, it will provide guidance and illumination in the necessary areas to ensure safety.

• Focused illumination on key holes and security pads allows for easy access when you are entering and leaving your home at night. Outdoor LED wall lights or recessed spotlights work well in these areas.
• Add path lighting to walkways every 6’ to provide adequate beam spread. This will create curb appeal ambiance and visibility when walking at night.

Don’t forget to add light near the house numbers – this can help in emergency situations or for deliveries!

LANDSCAPE AND UPLIGHTING

After the sun goes down be sure your home has the same curb appeal as it does during the daytime by adding outdoor and uplighting to the landscape.

• Illuminating trees or other elements from below will create soft focal points in the landscaping after the sun goes down. Use a flashlight to test where you’d like the light to hit, then mount the fixtures accordingly. Be sure to mount fixtures out of grass for ease of mowing and other landscaping tasks.

Be sure to view your outdoor lighting after dark before signing off on a project; make necessary adjustments to refine your outdoor lighting design.

To avoid being that neighbor, be sure to eliminate glare and make sure your outdoor light fixtures do not create “light trespass” into your neighbor’s property.

Another thing to consider is “Dark Sky” fixtures, click here to learn more on how to eliminate light pollution when picking outdoor fixtures.

What outdoor projects are you working on and how do you plan to highlight your space?