Architectural Outdoor Lighting: A Guide for Homeowners and Businesses|What Is Architectural Lighting? A Plain Answer|Architectural Lighting Explained, Without the Jargon

Is there a difference between architectural lighting and holiday lights?

It is a fair question what the word adds. The difference is between drawing around a house and lighting its parts. One treats the house as a shape. The other treats it as a building with peaks, recesses, columns and texture.None of that means you need to know the terms. The useful test is whether somebody can point at your building and tell you what the plan responds to. If the answer is specific to your house, you are talking to a designer. If it is about the hardware, you are talking to a salesperson.

What a plan looks at

Look at almost any house and there are two or three features doing the heavy lifting. Peaks, posts, upper windows, a masonry section, a covered entry. Those are the anchors, and the rest of the plan supports them.

What actually makes it look good

The instinct is to add light until nothing is dark. That is the mistake. Depth comes from contrast, so the unlit parts of a facade are doing as much work as the lit ones. Even coverage flattens the facade, which is not what the money was for.A building lit this way reads as considered rather than decorated, and most people notice it without being able to name why.

Residential and commercial

On a house, architectural lighting https://johnnywico141.clarionvale.com/posts/christmas-light-takedown-and-off-season-storage-where-your-lights-live-until-next-year-who-takes-down-your-christmas-lights-here-is-how-it-should-work-christmas-light-takedown is usually about how the front reads from the street. On a commercial building, there is a business reason attached: it needs to be found, and it needs to read as in business. A lit facade carries further than a sign does, and it can shift color for a season or an event.

The permanent system is not only a holiday product

The channel along the roofline is architectural lighting first, and holiday color for a small part of the calendar. Set to a single soft white, it does the everyday job. Switched to color, it becomes seasonal.

Three ways to point light at a building

Designers use a few words that sound technical and are not. Washing is broad, flat light on a wall, which suits smooth siding and large plain faces. Grazing exaggerates texture. Uplighting comes from below, which suits vertical features and little else.

Picking the white

White is not one color, and buildings react to it differently. Warm reads comfortable, and it makes earth toned materials look right. Cooler sharpens a modern facade, and a little goes a long way. Mixing them on one building is what looks wrong.

Where to begin if you want this done properly

Architectural lighting starts with somebody looking at the building. A plan drawn for your house will tell you why each run is where it is. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs architectural lighting for homeowners and businesses in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. The consultation is free. Call (864) 252-1732 or email [email protected].

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