Porch and entryway lighting makes your home feel safe and look welcoming. Good lighting adds value to your house. The most important aspect of outdoor lighting is security and safety. Apart from illuminating your pathway, stairs and front entrance, you must take care of lighting up the darkest parts of your garden or yard.
You could install motion sensor lights to scare away intruders. The other aspect of lighting up the porch and entryway is the design factor. Choose lighting options depending on space and budget and which complements your home’s façade.
Wall lighting
Wall lighting such as lanterns and sconces help to enhance your home’s entrance as they provide indirect lighting. You could install just one wall lantern on the front to illuminate your address and motion sensor or dimmable wall sconces on both sides of the exterior windows or patio door.
Ceiling lighting
Ceiling lighting outdoors go well in entryways, overhangs and porches. They’re also known as flush mounted fixtures. You could choose a simple design of ceiling lights and combine them with some wall mounted sconces for the doors. Ceiling lights are a good option for screened porches and porches with cathedral wood style ceilings. There are many traditional and modern styles available and you can take your pick, to match with your décor.
Hanging lighting
Hanging lighting has a wide variety of styles too, and these often elevate the look of your entryway or porch. They add a classy and dramatic design element, which behaves as task lighting too. You can add beauty and charm to your porch or entryway with the help of interesting hanging helps.
These lights come in many colors too, though people usually prefer black, white, cream and grey, as these colors work well with almost any color you may choose for your porch’s walls, ceiling and floors. A hanging starlight looks good in the entryway, for example, and if you have a large porch, matching lights will look good, hung at different distances in your porch.
Torches and lanterns
Torches and lanterns add charm and flair, whether you choose them for your entryway or your porch. There is simple rule regarding the size of the lantern for the exterior parts of your house – the maximum size of the lanterns must be one-fourth of your entrance door size, and if you’re using just one lamp, the size would be one-third of the door’s height. Lights on the door look welcoming and increase the security of the house.
The sheer variety of lanterns gives you a chance to find the perfect one for your home. You could go for antique styles to match with traditional facades and ultra modern ones which look with minimalistic styles. Many people also opt for motion sensor torches and lanterns which are placed in different locations of the property, which are good from the safety point of view too, as no intruder will dare to come nearer the house as these lights light up when they detect any motion. You’d also be aware of any unwelcome animal visitors to your home too.
Pathway and stairs lights
You could have hanging lanterns along the sides of your pathway, to greet your visitors. These look elegant and graceful, and with LED lights available, the cost of maintaining these lights also won’t be too much. As for steps /stairs, you can put up lights on the sides of each step to light them.
Types of light
The type of light is usually detected by the fixture, but more and more manufacturers are providing fixtures which are suitable for LEDs, as they consume less energy. CFLs and incandescent bulbs can also be chosen, depending on the design of your lamp / lantern.
Outdoor lighting is as important as the interiors’, especially when days are getting shorter and the dark sets in early and things seem a little gloomy. Brightly lit outdoors look cheerful and welcoming and it’s a well known fact that intruders keep away from well-lit homes. So for safety’s sake, and to increase that curb value, put up exterior lighting according to your taste and budget.
