Light the Night

Exterior lighting has become an integral part of residential landscaping. From uplights to downlights to everything in between, ever-expanding choices of outdoor fixtures can accentuate your clients’ dwellings and create safe passages while brightening your bottom line.

“There’s been an explosion of [outdoor] styles in recent years,” comments Joe Rey-Barreau, an education consultant for the Dallas-based American Lighting Association. “There’s an open-minded perspective on materials and styles that just wasn’t there 10 to 15 years ago.”

Ranging from ornate Victorian lamps to Arts and Crafts-inspired designs to Modern classics, stylish exterior lighting fixtures are showing up in backyards and on homes in a myriad of materials. For instance, Glenn Richmond, manager of San Jose, Calif.-based Galaxy Lighting, says that bronze-finished products and amber-hued glass are abundant in his area. “Bronze still is the most popular color,” observes Richmond, “but it’s important to offer plenty of finish options.”

Manufacturers are taking heed, constantly expanding their outdoor lighting lines. Progress Lighting, for example, offers products in gilded iron, burnished chestnut, and forged bronze finishes. Other manufacturers are following suit.

Bright Topper Available in several deck railing post-cap styles, LightCaps feature flush-mounted LED lights on the underside of the cap to provide ambient light. LightCaps are made from Western red cedar and come in five molding styles. Nantucket Post Cap. 888.758.7678. www.nantucketpostcap.com. Besides an abundance of finishes, durability also is improving. According to Rey-Barreau, composite plastic materials that are finished to look like wrought iron are popular because they’re very hard and heavy and can stand up to all types of weather. To be on the safe side, the outdoor lighting expert advises pros and homeowners to review individual manufacturer warranties. But, “unless you live within 50 miles of coastline, you don’t have to worry too much” about the local weather conditions, Rey-Barreau says.

Expert Advice. With such an abundance of products, it’s tough to know what type of lighting fixture to choose and where to place it. Industry experts offer some general guidelines.

Across the board, they recommend post or wall lanterns be hung at eye level at the front entryway to provide a welcoming glow. Matching garage and path lights laid out along the front walkway and throughout the backyard also are advisable for aesthetic appeal and safety concerns. Any other lighting accents are icing on the cake.

Brilliant Baluster Cast in solid aluminum, the Illuminations Perfect Panel features two 25,000-hour LED lights integrated into its pattern of squares and rectangles. The panel is 8 inches wide and 26½ inches tall, uses 12-volt DC power, and comes in 20 powder-coated colors. A remote control is available. De-Kor by Mile High Balusters. 800.258.0344. www.de-kor.com. Joan Honeyman of Washington, D.C.-based Jordan Honeyman Landscape Architecture uplights trees, spotlights walls, and even makes water fountains gleam. Highlighting these outdoor features adds a sense of drama to clients’ landscapes, Honeyman says. She particularly favors the shimmery effect that treetop lighting affords. “Highlighting trees creates a blue cast that makes it look like the moon is out and glowing,” the lighting designer enthuses.

The growing popularity of outdoor living spaces such as outdoor kitchens and dining rooms, may redirect some of the focus from accenting landscape features to keeping appliances well lit.

Although Richmond says that outdoor kitchens don’t impact exterior lighting designs much, you do have to take note of how the homeowners will use the space, even if that means “just throwing light on the barbecue,” he comments.

According to Mary Beth Gotti, a lighting designer for GE Consumer & Industrial Products, exterior lighting should set a mood as well as provide illumination for tasks such as cooking. She notes that the number of lighting systems per home is increasing, so consequently, control systems are more prevalent.

Step Lightly The Highpoint Step collection of recessed step lighting for decks is made of solid copper and brass with decorative glass shields. The lights are designed to install in a 3-inch-round, 1½-inch-deep hole with a second ½-inch hole for wiring. Highpoint Deck Lighting. 888.582.5850. www.hpdlighting.com. “At the touch of a switch, multiple layers can be switched and dimmed to create entirely different lighting compositions,” Gotti explains. “Lighting for entertaining and other festive occasions versus lighting for safety and security can be selected through a central control panel.”

Energy Savers. Even though good looks are the big driver behind exterior lighting fixture selections, industry experts predict that LED (light-emitting diode), low-voltage, and energy-efficient lighting technologies will become mainstream. Honeyman already installs low 12-volt lighting standard in her projects because it is easy to set up cables and lines on the ground and cover them with mulch, unlike higher-voltage lighting that must be buried under ground. Plus, energy-efficient lighting products can save your clients money, a benefit that will keep you in their good graces for years to come.

“The energy used to operate a light source costs far more than the light source itself. Using more energy-efficient light sources—for example, a compact fluorescent in a post lamp or a wall sconce—will keep electricity costs down, comments Gotti. Additionally, compact fluorescent bulbs last much longer than traditional incandescent ones. Says Rey-Barreau, “I’ve had them in my own home for the past three years and they’re still burning brightly.”

With bulb technologies evolving and more fixture finishes and durability on the horizon, the future looks bright for exterior lighting.

This article originally appeared in BUILDING PRODUCTS magazine.

Lane Illuminator The Terra-Lume ground lighting system is designed to withstand foot and vehicle traffic. An extruded-aluminum channel can be bent to match curves and allows the light rope to recede below the surface during foot or car traffic, then return to its original position. Lane Light. 713.303.4676. www.lanelight.net. Landscape Tips To help create a lighting scheme that will garner glowing reviews, the American Lighting Association offers the following tips:

Elegant Shades Designed for weather resistance, the Elegance three-arm and Scroll five-arm outdoor chandeliers feature lampshades made from Sunbrella mold- and fade-resistant fabrics. Elegance comes in a black finish and Scroll comes in black and antique copper finishes. Both are UL-listed for all wet locations. Shady Lady. 800.343.1954. www.shadyladylighting.com. When building a new house or an addition to an existing one, include outdoor lighting in the landscape plan. Pre-planning will help with placement of the transformer, pipes, and wires.

Determine what your clients want to accomplish as well as the focal points in the yard they want highlighted.

When working with a lighting professional, provide that person with a plat of the property, a copy of the landscape design, and/or photos of the home and its surroundings. This information will greatly aid in the planning process.

Buy a large enough transformer to handle all outdoor lighting needs—now and in the future.

If your clients decide to add landscape lighting in stages, run all the power in the initial phase so that mature landscaping is not disturbed later on.