If you live in an urban area, there are probably streetlights providing light to the front of your house, so exterior lighting for your home is not a necessity but more of an aesthetic choice. However, in some suburban areas and in most rural areas there are no streetlights! The rural and suburban homeowner must, out of necessity, provide hisher own outdoor home lights. Whichever category you fall into, the considerations for how to choose the appropriate type of lighting are the same.
First and foremost, from a designer’s viewpoint, adding to the appearance of your home is perhaps the best reason to make carefully considered lighting choices. If you are proud of your home then you will want to show it off. There are vast varieties of outdoor home lighting fixtures on the market. But choosing the right lights is a challenge. Which lighting style will compliment your home How much light is the right amount, and where exactly should you put the lights Usually the front entrance is the architectural focal point of a house and that is where you should start your lighting design. Choose one style of major fixture (or pair of fixtures) for your front entrance way, either to install in the entryway ceiling or on the wall near the door.
Styles of outdoor lights range from classic to contemporary to industrial; aluminum to brass to copper; lantern to chandelier to recessed. The choices are endless. If you are not sure what would look good on your house, you could buy a few different styles to compare and return the ones you don’t want, or enlarge some photos from ads and actually tape them up on your house. You need to try and visualize how it will look. Then, if you would like to highlight a secondary architectural feature, light a walkway, or perhaps uplight a specimen tree in your foundation planting, make sure those lights fit into the style and design of your entrance way lighting. Keep it simple and keep it soft, keep it subtle. Only use as many lights as you need. You want to aid people’s vision, not spotlight a stage show!
Safety is a concern that nobody can afford to overlook. There is a need to light the access walkways and driveways that bring you and your visitors to your doors. Some lights you’ll want to keep on all night, such as path lights or driveway lights. Others, like your front porch light, you may wish to automatically turn off with a timer. Now say you need to take out the trash at night or to look for your wayward pet through the back or side door. Outdoor lighting in the back and sides of your house might be on a motion sensor to work just when you need them. There are differing views about whether bright lights at night deter crime and vandalism, or whether they actually help the perpetrators to see better what they are doing. One can’t help but assume that the surprise of the motion sensor light must scare away some burglars. How your outdoor home lights affect your neighbors is another important consideration to make when creating your lighting design. Some types of light fixtures are designed to flood an area with light (not recommended) while others spotlight or direct the light to a specific area (recommended).
Keep in mind that too much light is as bad as not enough light. Too much light makes the contrast between light and dark too harsh. You are blinded as you move out of the bright light into the darkness, and as you approach an overlit area in the dark suddenly you can’t see where you are stepping. Another reason to avoid installing glaring lights is that they cause light pollution. This excess of light is sometimes known as light trespassing when it spills over into your neighbors property, shining in their bedroom windows for example.
Some communities have regulations just about outdoor lighting. We already have issues with our neighbors, why add another problem Better to make an attempt to keep your outdoor lighting to your own property. And that is easy if you choose the correct fixtures. Light pollution is just what it sounds like- something that is messing up the worlds environment, affecting everyone on the planet! The dark sky movement, as they have been dubbed, are scientists, green crusaders, and concerned citizens who are raising the issue of light pollution. The fact that most people can relate to is this In just a few more years, maybe a decade, nowhere in the United States will it be dark enough for you to see the Milky Way Galaxy with your naked eye. Depending on your age, this may have been an ability that you took for granted when you were young.
Tags: architectural feature, architectural focal point, exterior lighting, feature light, foundation planting, front entrance, home lighting fixtures, lighting design, specimen tree, suburban homeowner