Exterior Lighting. What is it Anyway?
Whenever someone asks me to update their exterior lighting I always ask a series of questions to find out just how much lighting they have. Many people don’t realize how many lights are included in their exterior lighting until they walk outside and start counting. We see the front of our home so often we overlook the details and we stop seeing all there is to see. We are in the process of updating our latest home remodel’s exterior lighting and I had to walk around my home counting and recounting to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
The most commonly found exterior lighting types include the following.
Wall Sconce Lights-These are the fixtures we commonly think of when we consider our home’s exterior lighting. Wall sconce’s highlight the home’s architectural style and character while providing light sources for commonly travelled areas in front of the home. This lighting is often grouped together in sets of two and is found around all exterior entrances, the front door and garage doors. The lighting is attached to exterior walls and can be sheltered and unsheltered from the elements depending on the overall architecture and design of the home.
Outdoor Ceiling Lights-Usually these fixtures are found in the ceiling of a front porch area. They can also be found in the eaves over a garage area, car ports or in second story balconies or decks. There are two distinct types of ceiling lights most commonly used, flush mount lighting-lighting that is directly attached to the ceiling, and hanging lights-lighting suspended from the ceiling. There are various advantages and disadvantages to these types of fixtures and careful consideration should be given to their selection.
Outdoor Post Lights-Post lights are usually found just in front of a home’s entrance sometimes at a stairway, or in front of a home flanking the entrance to the driveway or entrance gate. Often forgotten, post lights serve a important purpose since they are often the first sign of your home for visitor’s especially in the evening and they can set the tone for the style of your home. Post lights aren’t attached to the home and usually require separate wiring depending on their distance from the home itself.
Outdoor Ceiling Fans-While these aren’t as common in Northern California where our home is located I recently became completely obsessed with a country property that had a large covered front porch with a set of ceiling fans. Ceiling fans have a traditional Southern look and are necessary in climates with warm summers and humidity to keep outdoor seating areas comfortable for lounging or dining. Ceiling fans can be found with or without lights and often exterior fans do not have lights since light sources around where fans are located may offer ample wattage.
String Lights-I’m a fan of string lights for any time of the year, even though they are most commonly thought of as holiday adornments for your home. String lights are abundant in my neighborhood where we don’t have street lights and many homes have them throughout their trees and connecting to porches and outdoor dining spaces. String lights are the least commitment since they are found fairly inexpensively and can be easily installed and removed.
Landscape Lights-Landscape lighting encompasses much of the most overlooked lighting that homeowners consider when updating their exterior. We’re not going to dive into this too deeply now, since landscape lighting really deserves more attention. For now let’s consider landscape lighting as any lighting that highlights landscape areas, front walkways, sidewalks or other exterior spaces that are not connected to the home and often illuminate the ground or landscaping. This includes tree lighting.
Other-Other miscellaneous examples of exterior lighting includes stair tread lighting, pool lighting, security lighting, flood lighting, holiday themed lighting and more. We are going to discuss these in more detail later.
