You have a beautiful home, with impeccable landscaping, but at night, everything disappears! Architectural lighting from Nite Time Decor Oakville is a key component in highlighting the beautiful structures of your house. However, before you start planning your architectural lighting design, you should understand the different components of your home and how architectural lighting can add or subtract (if done poorly) from the aesthetic appeal. Below we’ve detailed some factors to take into consideration when thinking about your architectural lighting design.

The Scale: It’s All about Balance

Not only with architectural lighting, but with any lighting project, you must consider the size of the objects you are highlighting. You don’t want anything to disappear among all of the other elements, nor do you want them to be grossly overstated. If you want the lighting fixture itself to add to the decoration, then pair small, delicate fixtures with homes that have finer architectural features and vice versa.

Alternatively, you could be discreet with your architectural lighting design. Our In-Ground Well Lights go virtually undetected and can add a lovely pop of light across the architecture of your home.

Characteristics of Various Architectural styles

When choosing lighting to fit your home’s exterior, the design of your outdoor décor is one of the first things to consider:

Colonial: this comes from a design period featuring wall fixtures and lanterns designed for candles. The designs are simple and geometric.

Greek revival: lighting in Greek revival homes tends to be very symmetrical. In addition, it’s filled with pillars.

Spanish Revival: these homes tend to have a lot of ornamentation, with wrought iron lanterns and torch lighting.

Tudor: identifiable by its black and white timber and plaster walls. Lighting from this period tends to have a rugged appearance.

Georgian: this style is all about ancient Greek and Roman harmony combined with a feeling of lightness and space.

Victorian and Edwardian: this is a very ornate style, typically comes with urns, lyres, and caryatids.

Arts and Crafts and Mission: this movement is all about rustic designs with a handmade look. Square, rectangle, or cylindrical shapes are very common.

Choosing Your Oakville Architectural Lighting

You can show off your garden and highlight your home at the same time:

Grazing (casting light obliquely to bring out the texture of a surface): works well with stucco or brick walls. Our In-Ground Well Lights have a nice grazing effect.

Highlighting: this is a great technique if your home has statues or sculptures or has Greek or Roman revival. Our Spotlight has a very dramatic uplighting effect.

Beyond enhancing safety and security, architectural lighting design adds drama and dimension to your home and outdoor garden. Understanding how lighting techniques and decorative lighting fixtures can complement your home’s architecture with one of our lighting professionals is the first step to developing a lighting system that will enhance your entire landscape! Contact one of our experts at Nite Time Décor Oakville or visit the residential lighting section of our website for more information!