Outdoor Lighting Ideas for Front of House

Path Lights

 Path lights range from soft to moderately bright and are installed along a path or walkway[/caption]

Path or walkway lights are a popular outdoor lighting idea you may wish to install in the front of your home. These lights range from soft to moderately bright and are installed along a path or walkway, helping to guide visitors and homeowners alike from the road to the front door of your home. The benefits of path lights are two-fold. First, they make the exterior of your home safer to navigate, preventing people from tripping and falling in the dark as they enter your home. Second, they enhance the aesthetic of your home by creating a lovely ambiance. Path lights are typically installed along both sides of a walkway but can also be used among plants or flower beds. Path lights come in all shapes and sizes, which allows homeowners to find a lighting solution that speaks to their design preferences. Beyond installing path lights along the walkway to the front entrance of your home, some homeowners also use path lighting to illuminate stepping stones in a garden or highlight a backyard feature, such as a fountain. 

Deck Lights

Another type of outdoor lighting homeowners may be interested in are deck or porch lights. These are moderate to high-intensity lighting solutions intended to help people navigate a front porch or deck, such as moving across the deck or walking up and down the stairs leading to the deck. If you have a porch or deck, then it’s likely a prominent feature on the exterior of your home. As such, you may spend a lot of time there, whether you’re entertaining guests in your backyard or sipping your morning coffee out front. If you use your deck or porch frequently, then investing in deck lights may be important to you. There are a wide variety of deck lighting options available to homeowners, from uplights to well lights. You will also be able to choose where your deck lights are installed. For example, deck lights can be installed along the perimeter of the deck’s surface, along stair railings, or in between each step. The possibilities are endless, but no matter which you choose, it will serve to make navigating your porch or deck safer and easier.

String Lights

If you’re after a trendy form of outdoor lighting, look no further than string lights. Providing low-intensity illumination, string lights are typically decorative. They are often considered a type of accent light, used to achieve a certain ambiance or atmosphere. Especially desirable for entertaining, string lights can be hung wherever you like, from the eaves of a home or even between the posts of a front porch or gazebo. With all kinds of string lights on the market today, we recommend looking for ones that are specifically made to be used outdoors. Ideally, string lights should be waterproof and rechargeable. Some are even solar-powered, which can help eliminate the need for running bulky extension cords and cables through your front or backyard. 

Spot Lights

Spot lights are the perfect way to highlight impressive areas of your front yard[/caption]

Spot lights, otherwise known as uplights, are the perfect way to highlight impressive areas of your front yard. Spotlights cast a focused beam of light upwards and are usually installed to illuminate a decorative element of your yard, such as a water feature, lawn ornament, tree, or shrub. However, they can also be used to light up exterior walls or architectural details of your home. Multiple spotlights can be installed opposite each other to light up larger areas of your yard. If the lights are mounted in a way where their beams meet in the center, it can create a dramatic and eye-catching effect. The best type of spot light for your yard largely depends on what you’re looking to illuminate. While bullet-shaped lights are best suited to taller objects, such as trees, round well lights may be the better choice for illuminating shorter features like shrubs. One final note on spotlights is that they tend to be quite bright and therefore are not well suited to walkways or paths, as their extreme brightness can make visibility worse. 

Wall Lights

Wall lights are another type of outdoor lighting solution homeowners may be interested in. After all, wall lights and sconces aren’t just for indoors. They can add a decorative touch to your front door, deck/porch, garage, or patio. They can be mounted on any vertical surface and vary in style, ranging from lanterns and bulkhead lights to floodlights, barn lights, and spot lights. If vertical space is limited at the front of your house, then you can opt for semi-flush-mount sconces where the light is attached to the wall via a narrow arm. 

Recessed Ground Lights

Ground lights, sometimes referred to as recessed ground lights or well lights are lighting solutions designed to be installed directly in the ground as part of your home’s outdoor lighting. Recessed ground lights can serve many purposes, including illuminating your front yard or being used as accent lighting to showcase shrubs, flower beds, tall trees, or other decorative elements of your home’s exterior. Ground lights can even provide illumination for paths or walkways. Fixtures can be placed in turf or landscaped areas of your front yard and often utilize LED bulbs. Some well lights even have timers and can be programmed to come on at certain times of day, while others have underwater capabilities, allowing them to function even when completely submerged in water (a great option for backyards with swimming pools, ponds, or other water features). Overall, recessed ground lights cast a soft glow wherever they are installed, which is perfect for highlighting the beauty of the front of your house.

Security Lights

Another outdoor lighting idea for the front of your house is security lights. Security lights, as the name suggests, add a layer of safety and security to your home, their purpose being to deter crime and make the outside of your home safer at night. Security lighting is generally the brightest type of exterior lighting, allowing it to illuminate large swaths of land. It is a popular choice among homeowners looking to scare off potential trespassers or even wild animals. This type of outdoor lighting is generally installed at a high vantage point, such as in an eavestrough or above the garage so that it can cast light down onto a walkway or side door. There are all kinds of security lights on the market today, with many featuring motion sensors that can expose prowlers and deceive them into thinking that someone is home, even when no one is. While security lights are less about improving the ambiance or aesthetic of your home, they still serve an important purpose and are worth considering, especially near the entrances to your property.

Install Outdoor Lighting At Your Atlanta Home Today

 Abulous Lighting is one of the leading light installation companies in the North Metro Atlanta area.[/caption]

Now that you know more about the outdoor lighting options available to you, it’s time to decide on the right kind of lighting for your home and hire a professional to install it. Before making a decision, consider the main purpose of the lighting you want to install. For example, is it to keep your family safe and deter trespassers, accentuate your beautiful garden and landscape, or illuminate a patio, making it more enjoyable to perhaps eat meals and spend time outside? Carefully considering your specific goals for outdoor lighting will help you narrow down your options. If you still aren’t sure, consider speaking with a professional like those at Abulous Lighting. Abulous Lighting is one of the leading light installation companies in the North Metro Atlanta area. We specialize in quality, cost-effective custom lighting designs and can offer our professional opinion as to the best type of outdoor lighting for your home. Should you choose to move forward with your outdoor lighting installation, we will ensure your landscaping project goes off without a hitch.  

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