Lighting up your home is a large undertaking, but with the proper outdoor lighting design, the hard-to-light features of your home don’t have to disappear in the after-dusk landscape. The benefit of Nite Time Décor Oakville outdoor lighting is that you can accentuate the unique aspects of your home like chimneys, flagpoles, sheds and other outbuildings.

Flagpoles are often a source of pride for many individuals and businesses and we’d love to see yours any time of day! Here are our best tips!

Well Lights Add A Natural Look

To get a more subtle, natural look, try well lights. These little fixtures can be hidden in the ground or shrubbery around your flagpole in order to illuminate it from below. What’s more, well lights will give a sense of grandeur to the flagpole as they emphasize the height. You’ll need more than one to fully light up the structure, however. Generally, depending on how bright you want it, two well lights are enough to create the right level of illumination.

Use Spotlights From the Base

If you want to produce more light than well lights offer, try installing spotlights at the base of the flagpole. Residential and commercial needs will differ so be sure to consult our experts first. Using one light will provide a dramatic, sharper effect. Using two lights, intersecting from opposite directions, can provide a softer lighting. The method you choose may depend on the lighting currently used to illuminate the rest of your business or home’s façade.

Light the Flag Directly

If you don’t want to emphasize the height of the pole, try an uplighter. These can be attached directly to the pole, further away from the ground. This is used to make the flag pop out as an important feature of your yard.

For flagpoles that are beginning to peel or become weathered, uplighting may be a good option. It’s a great method to use if you don’t want to draw attention to a flagpole that needs to be replaced or repainted.

Remember, you want a gentle light that highlights the flag and/or the pole, not a theatre spotlight effect in an otherwise dark yard.

Chimneys

Chimneys might seem like an odd feature of your home to think about illuminating at night, but many newer homes don’t have them as natural wood fireplaces have fallen out of fashion. Chimneys are also, often, the highest point of your home which make them fantastic focal points to increase aesthetic appeal as their height offers visibility and clarity.

Create A Cohesive Design Plan

Make a plan for adding landscape lighting to your entire home, it would seem odd to add lighting to just your chimney. Study your chimney and identify any unique angles, textures or facades to highlight. There are a few different ways to add outdoor lighting to a chimney so that it fits into the larger design of your home.

Types of lighting

There are three common types of Nite Time Décor Oakville fixtures that are used on chimneys: up lighting, down lighting, and recessed lights.

When you’re trying to decide whether or not to use an up light or a down light, figure out the visibility of your chimney. If your chimney begins being visible at the roofline, rather than at the base of the home, you’ll want to use a down light. This ensures that more of the chimney is highlighted, while a spotlight on a chimney like this will light up more of the wall. Spotlights are great for chimneys that begin at the base of the home toward the roofline.

Recessed lighting, though not as common as up or down lighting, can still be used on chimneys if you don’t want your landscape lighting to be visible from below. The only negative quality of these is that you’re going to have fewer options for lighting if you choose this route.

Plan your chimney to match

If you’re adding chimney lights to pre-existing outdoor lighting, make sure it matches in style and doesn’t add too much light. You don’t want to over light the area and create an unbalanced effect in your yard.

Lighting Up Backyard Sheds And Rural Outbuildings

From time to time, we need to access these buildings after dark – whether you’re searching for a shovel for that surprise snow fall or you need a spare part, or you want to add additional security to a darker part of the yard, outdoor lighting can be very handy!

Floodlights and spotlights are perhaps the main go-to, along with unattractive bare bulbs over doors, but you can ensure these buildings are just as secure and attractive as the rest of your yard at night.

Rural outbuildings and backyard sheds are well-suited to motion-sensor lights that can also be equipped with a timer so they only come on if there’s movement and only at certain times of day. Then you can set it and forget it.

If you have any gardens or plants, highlighting those can also be attractive – particularly if this is a building with a great façade, garden, or placement in the yard. Pathway lights around the front or on the pathway to the building can add safety while still being attractive.

Every Good Gazebo Deserves To Be Used At Night

Gazebos can breathe life into any yard gathering, particularly when properly lit for nighttime entertaining.

The first thing to consider when designing a gazebo lighting system is wiring and electrical requirements. If you hire one of our electricians, you can be sure that your commercial or residential gazebo lighting system will be properly hooked into your electrical panel.

Our technicians will take care of installing the wiring underground to prevent tripping. We can also decide whether it’s best to hook it up to an outdoor outlet or an interior circuit.

This is not a job you want to attempt on your own. The professionals at Nite Time Décor are trained to handle complex electrical work. Our team of designers and electricians are here to give you the best consultation and continued maintenance for your Burlington outdoor lighting system.

Lighting the Interior

Something like a chandelier or our down light would be perfect for lighting the interior of your gazebo. Either of these fixtures allow for stylish lighting that illuminates the area without creating too much glare.

Remember to consider voltage when planning for interior gazebo light fixtures in your outdoor lighting design. There are some activities that will require brighter lighting. If you are planning on reading, playing boardgames or cards, you’ll want the option of adding brighter lights to tables or seating areas.

Exterior Gazebo Lighting

Lighting the perimeter of your gazebo is all about accenting the right features. When you’re conceptualizing your gazebo lighting, decide what sections of the gazebo’s structure you want to highlight.

Think about up lighting versus down lighting. Down lighting has the benefit of also illuminating the interior, as well as the exterior. Don’t forget to light the pathways and entrances to your gazebo. You want to make sure that your guests don’t trip on the way to your gathering. These can easily be incorporated into your outdoor lighting design and will help improve safety as well as ambiance.

Think about coloured lights if your yard has an insect problem. Coloured lights are less likely to attract bugs than bright yellow or white lights.

For the best advice for your outdoor lighting design, contact one of Oakville Nite Time Décor’s experts today!