Outdoor lighting

Make Your Home Inviting Day or Night with the Right Exterior Lighting /  by Margaret Chambers

Using a variety of lights creates a balanced and professionally-lit exterior, like this Dallas home we helped to design.

I’ve discussed interior lighting design in previous articles, but today I want to address exterior lighting because it’s really important for accenting your home and landscape. Exterior lighting helps you get the most out of your outdoor living spaces, even during short winter days. It’s also crucial for personal safety: a well-lit property gives intruders fewer places to hide. Below, I’ll go over some of the things I’ve learned about exterior lighting as a design professional.

Just like indoor lighting, outdoor lighting should be layered with different types of coverage. To light the front of your house, use bullet lights with bulbs that have a narrow (12°) spread, and aim them at the corners of your house or on architectural details. Fill in the gaps with soft wash lights. Generally, spotlights should be placed about one-and-a-half feet from whatever they’re shining on. When lighting the upper areas of your house, use smaller fixtures that won’t stick out as much.

For front porches, I recommend hanging a light fixture over the doorway and lights on either side of the door. I like to make sure loggias have hanging lights and fans. You can also put sconces on the columns, and add extra lighting with upward and downward lights. Steps will need lights — such as risers or lit treads – so that people don’t stumble.

One way to light a front or back door is by putting a sconce on either side.

Many people will put a series of lights in a straight line along a pathway, but this can make the path feel like an airplane runway. A more attractive alternative would be to stagger the lights on either side. As far as landscaping goes, there should be at least a little bit of lighting in the flowerbeds. If you have a large yard, you can light it by putting lights on posts at the corners.

Pool lighting is also important, and water features like fountains should always be lit. It’s also a good idea to think about where your Christmas lights will plug in. Add them to the backyard too if you’re planning on having backyard Christmas parties.

Solar lights are not recommended for exterior lighting because they are not as bright as electric lights. If you do use solar lights, you’ll need to choose larger fixtures to compensate. Although LED lights are more expensive upfront, they are a wise investment over time: they are more energy efficient and usually last twenty-five times longer than standard bulbs. When in doubt, use warm temperature bulbs. 3000K is a great standard color, one that is suitable to be used for your entire landscaping system.

It’s important to consider the scale of your home when choosing fixture sizes. For example, a two-story house will need larger lanterns than a one-story house will. If your house is under construction, go ahead and start purchasing fixtures now. You can compare different sizes, holding them up to your house to see which will be more proportional.

When you can, match the style of your outdoor lighting fixtures with the style of your home’s architecture. A traditional home should be lit with traditional wall sconces or an outdoor lantern, for example, while modern homes should use light fixtures with simple silhouettes. If you have a historic house, you may want to have the original exterior light fixtures rewired and refinished instead of replacing them.

When we updated this 1927 home in Kessler Park, we kept the original exterior light fixtures and rewired them.

Getting that “professionally lit” look for your house can be daunting. Between fixture placement, fixture style, voltage, wattage, color temperature, and beam spread, there are a lot of factors to consider for each and every light that you choose. These tips will help you get started, but if you’re pressed for time or feeling unsure, you can always bring in a professional.

As an interior designer, I’m often involved with choosing the exterior lighting for my projects. A full-service interior design firm such as mine can help make sure that your home is well lit inside and out. You can reach out to us by calling our Dallas office at 214-651-7665 or emailing us at info@chambersinteriors.com.

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Why Sconces Belong in Any Home’s Lighting Plan /  by Margaret Chambers

Lantern style sconces are usually used outdoors, but can be used indoors as well, like in this Dallas bathroom.

Sconces are a wonderful way to add decorative lighting to any room. You most often see them on either side of a bathroom mirror, but I like to use them in many other applications as well, such as alongside a big painting, next to bookshelves in a library, or above fireplace mantles. If you’re currently designing a new home and want to try incorporating more sconces into your plan, you’ll find the following pointers useful.

Researching Sconce Styles and Materials

If you have a modern or contemporary home, you’ll want to look for wall sconces with straight lines, simple forms, and sharp angles. For a very traditional home, I’d recommend fine reproductions of traditional sconces, or shopping for antique sconces and having them rewired.

While sconces do not have to perfectly match the other light fixtures in the room, they should be complementary in some way, like sharing the same metal or similar shapes. At my interior design firm, we used to use a lot of iron sconces, but nowadays we prefer sconces made of brass or polished nickel, some with patterned fabric shades.

Ordering and Hanging Your Sconces

Adding sconces to an existing wall is a difficult process, so the planning for sconces is typically done during the design phase for a house. When we work with the client, we use a tape measurer to figure out where sconces should go so that we’ll know where the electrician should pull the cords to.

These modern sconces are an appealing contrast to the multicultural antiques and patterns in this formal living room.

Whenever possible, buy the sconces you think you want and hold them in the room to make sure they’re the right size. Getting the right proportion is tricky for most clients. Generally, the lower your ceilings, the smaller your sconces should be. Most sconces should be hung at approximately eye level, between five and a half to six feet high.

Hallways and Stairways:

Space the sconces about eight to ten feet apart to make sure that the hallway is adequately lit without being too bright. In a narrow hallway, sconces should not stick out too far.

One of the trickiest places to add sconces in is a staircase, but they can be helpful for safety purposes. Here, it’s usually better to use odd numbers of sconces rather than even.

Bedrooms:

Wall-mounted sconces are perfect for creating reading light over the bed. They should usually be positioned thirty to thirty-six inches above the top of the mattress, and no more than a foot away from the edge of the bed. Another great spot for a bedroom sconce is where the fabric is gathered on a canopy bed.

You can also use sconces to light the area where you get ready for the day. After all, overhead lights are not the best for putting on makeup or shaving.

Bathrooms:

Sconces for a bathroom mirror should be hung one quarter to one third of the way down from the top of the mirror. If your bathroom has two vanities, you’ll want three sconces: one to put on either side of the outer edges of the vanities, and one in between them.

It's best to put sconces on either side of a mirror. Overhead lighting casts unflattering shadows on the face.

Exterior Lighting:

Outdoor lanterns are essentially sconces with covers to keep dirt out. In my opinion, people often position them too high or too low on the front of a house. Outdoor sconces need to be durable enough to withstand the elements and also bright enough to illuminate the porch, the front, or the back of your home.

Even after doing research and making careful measurements, some homeowners may still find it difficult to get sconces that are the right proportion and style for their home. In cases like this, they may want to seek out an interior designer such as myself who often uses sconces in their designs. The trouble is worth it: when sconces are thoughtfully chosen and positioned, they are a fantastic asset to your overall lighting plan. If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and would like to schedule a free consultation with us, call 214-651-7665 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.

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