Accent Lighting: What It Is and Where It Belongs|How Does Accent Lighting Differ From Everything Else? Here Is the Distinction|Using Accent Lighting Well on a Real Property
Accent lighting is a choice about what to leave dark The difference between accent lighting and general lighting is intent. It is not coverage. Point it at a specimen tree, a stone column, a water feature, a front door and stop. The dark part is not a gap in the plan. It is doing the work.That is really the whole idea, stated as plainly as it can be. Choose a small number of things and light nothing else. The pull is always toward adding, and holding the line is what keeps
Patio and Outdoor Living Lighting, What Makes an Outdoor Room Work After Dark|How Should a Patio Be Lit: The Practical Version|Outdoor Living Lighting Done Properly: A Homeowner's Guide
Two sides, two purposes The front of a property gets judged from the street. The patio is a place you occupy. Everything changes when you become the audience from within. Nobody is grading the back yard from the street. What matters is whether people stay out there past nine.The short version: do not treat the back as an afterthought of the front. The front and the back need different work, and one light over the door is the usual result of not planning it. Two spaces, two
Professional Christmas Light Installation: Design, Install, Takedown and Storage|Hiring a Christmas Light Installer? What to Look For
Why people stop doing it themselves The job seems small in the driveway, then it eats a whole weekend. Between the height, the cold, and the strand that dies the day after you finish, plenty of homeowners hand it off. What you should be getting The job breaks into a few pieces, and the last one is the one people forget. First a design, based on your roofline and your yard. Then the install, done by a crew with the right ladders and the right hardware. Then maintenance duri
Off Season Storage and Holiday Light Takedown: The Half of the Job Nobody Asks About|What Happens to Holiday Lights in January?|January, and the Part of Holiday Lighting Nobody Plans For: What to Expect
What gets left out of the conversation The whole discussion is about getting them lit. That is the fun half. But the season ends, and then there is a second job nobody scheduled. The people who thought about that in October have a much better January than the people who did not.And that is unfortunate, since the takedown is where a service is really tested. Anybody can hang lights in November. The real question is what happens after. That question is worth asking before you
Lighting the Roofline: What Goes Up There and How It Attaches|Why Roofline Lighting Works When It Is Done Properly|Considering Roofline Lighting? Here Is How It Works
The roof edge is the strongest line on the building Look at any house after dark and the shape you recognize is the roofline. Nothing else on the house gives you that much unbroken length, and nothing else is backed by open air. Light that line and the building reads as a shape rather than a dark mass.Which is why the roof edge is where permanent lighting goes rather than anywhere else on the building. It is the highest impact run on the building, for what it costs to insta
Security Lighting, Where to Put It and Where Not To|How Should Security Lighting Be Done? Here Is What Matters|Rethinking Security Lighting for Homes and Businesses
The floodlight instinct The standard response to a dark yard is a floodlight bolted to the corner of the house. It feels like the right answer. It usually is not. One bright light produces hard edges, and everything past the beam is harder to see than before.Taken together, it points somewhere other than brightness. Lower output, wider coverage, careful aim: that is the whole approach. It costs about what people were going to spend anyway, and the result is genuinely better
Permanent Holiday Lights: Why One Install Covers the Whole Calendar|Are Permanent Holiday Lights Worth It? An Honest Look
Holiday lighting without the annual setup Permanent holiday lights are installed once and left up. That is the core of it, and it holds up better than it sounds. The hardware is a low profile LED channel run along the roofline and eaves, color matched to your trim so daylight hides it. More than one holiday Most people start with Christmas. What they use it for after that is broader. Orange for Halloween. Red and blue for the Fourth. Team colors on game day. A color for so
Lighting the Roofline: How One Line Changes the Whole House|What Makes Roofline Lighting Look Right When It Is Done Properly|Considering Roofline Lighting? Here Is How It Works
Start at the top edge From the street, a house is mostly a silhouette, and the roof draws it. It is the longest continuous line on the building, and it sits against the sky, so it has contrast working for it. Put light on it and the outline comes back, which is the effect people are actually after.That is the reason permanent systems live at the roof edge, and why one line up there outperforms a dozen fixtures at ground level. It is the most efficient piece of exterior ligh