Coolest Ideas for Lighting on Your Porch and Entryway

Outdoor lighting can serve dual purposes in your home. In addition to lighting up the way for guests to enter your home, they will also provide safety from predators in the form of wandering animals or thieves. Not to mention the additional boost your curb appeal gets with proper outdoor lighting. Here are some tips and ideas that you can take into consideration when choosing outdoor lighting options for your home.

Location of the lights

The most important factor of outdoor lighting is that it offers the necessary safety and security for the premises. As such, the location of the outdoor lights is a very important factor to be considered. You will need lights to illuminate the front door and back door as well as the stairs, pathways and other dark corners of the property. Following these, you can choose to add more lights in other locations to enhance aesthetic appeal.

Wall Lighting: Lanterns and scones attached to the walls can illuminate the home’s entrance via indirect lighting. You can also use a lantern attached to the front wall, helping illuminate the street address in the process. Extra lighting effects can be achieved by installing motion sensor wall scones on either side of patio door or exterior windows.

Hanging Lighting: Pendants and other hanging lighting options can offer illuminance for the front door nicely. They can also play the dual role of task lighting wherein you can choose to hang the pendants above the functional areas of the porch where everyone gathers together for parties or gatherings. There are so many pendant designs to choose from for enhancing curb appeal while providing your porch and entryway with adequate light.

The style of lights

The next part involves deciding the type of lights you will need to illuminate the porch and entryway. While this depends on your preferences, there are some pointers that may influence your decision. Accordingly, the different kinds of lighting options you can choose for the outdoor area include;

Ceiling Lighting: These are great options for illuminating entryways, overhangs and porches. Offering a rather dramatic look, these ceiling lights are usually installed above a door or hung above a patio table for functional appeal.

Torches and Lanterns: These lighting options add extra flair to your home’s entryway and porch. However, when choosing lanterns you will need to take into account the bulb type as well as the scale and mounting features. Lanterns that measure ¼ of the entrance door can do well for entryways while you can choose to increase the size for more impact (and more brightness as well).

The Type of Lights

When it comes to choosing the types of lights that go into these fixtures, you will be looking at either standard incandescent bulbs or energy efficient LED lights. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are also pretty common choices for outdoor lighting solutions. Of late, there has been a shift towards more energy efficient choices, meaning more home owners are opting for these sleekly designed lamps that offer the same if not brightness than incandescent bulbs and CFLs, sans the costs involved.

The placement of the junction boxes

This is a very important pointer which sadly, many home owners tend to neglect. The presence of a junction box as well the direction in which it is fitted will affect the placement of the lighting. You cannot have a lamp hanging on the front porch with its wire stretching across the porch to meet the junction box on the side. With regards to direction, you will have to hang the lighting fixture in the same direction as the box. In most cases, this may lead to the fixture not providing the desired illumination on the desired spot. So talk to an electrician about setting up junction boxes or changing their direction in order to benefit your outdoor lighting fixtures.

Summary

Outdoor lighting not only provides safety and security, but also increases curb appeal. With the help of a few simple pointers, you can easily understand the best type of lights that will suit your home, their placement and their style as well.

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