Lighting Up Outside

I think exterior lighting is always a plus with any. Good lighting will welcome you and your guests on a rainy night, provide some measure of security for your family, and illuminate address numbers, door locks, and staircases. Before you decide to install fixtures as powerful as Batman’s searchlight, consider the following:

• Know the size of the fixture and its scale compared to your house.
• Think about the location and aim of the lights and their effect on your neighbors. (A little light goes a long way at night.)Caulk the top seam between the fixture and the section of the house where it’s attached to ensure that water stays out. Leave the bottom uncaulked so that, if moisture does get in, it has a place to exit.
• Think twice before installing solid-brass fixtures. They won’t rust, but eventually most will tarnish and need polishing.

Installing outside lighting, like many tasks, can be done the easy way or the hard way. The easy way means mounting all the fixtures on the walls of your house (and porch ceilings), which means you can pull your wires from inside the house. The hard way means digging ditches and running wires and conduit underground, although this will give your yard a much more dramatic presentation. As a final consideration, think about what your outdoor lighting will look like from inside the house. You can enjoy your yard even in the winter if you set up lighting that accents it well.

Aim the Lighting High, Low, and Wide

Light from a lamp is aimed somewhere, whether it’s the top of your desk or your workbench. Even general ambient lighting gets directed somewhere. Recessed ceiling lights and adjustable spotlights can provide as broad or as focused a beam of light as you desire. Some lights are installed as wall washers, meaning they shine down a wall either to highlight artwork or other collections or simply to draw your attention to the perimeter of the room, conveying a greater sense of size than might truly exist. The advantages of recessed ceiling lights are their versatility and unobtrusiveness. Let’s face it, a chandelier automatically draws attention to itself—especially if one of your party guests is swinging on it. A recessed fixture is far more subtle and almost hides in the background.
Some fixtures can serve more than one purpose. A wall sconce, for example, can serve general, task, and accent lighting needs. This versatility is a huge advantage over ceiling lights when you’re remodeling because it’s far easier to wire and install a wall fixture than to install most ceiling fixtures.

Know Your Lighting

Lighting is defined by its use in our homes and places of work. Designers and architects break it down into several categories:

➤ Accent lighting emphasizes or highlights a specific area or object and directs our attention to it.
➤ Ambient lighting is general illumination.
➤ Task lighting is for illuminating work and tasks.

It’s never a bad idea to install plenty of ambient lighting, even if you later decide it’s more than you immediately need. At some point in the future, you might move things around and decide you need more lighting. I wouldn’t recommend tearing up the walls just to install fixtures, but if you have an open ceiling or already are doing some installations, consider a few extra light fixtures if the circuit permits. If you walk into a lighting store or the lighting section of a home-improvement center, you’ll see dozens and dozens of fixtures to choose from. Where do you start?