Front of House Lighting: Making Your Property Shine

When it comes to putting on a great impression for your guests and visitors, dressing up your property is critical. Where better to start than to set up spectacular lighting at the front of your house? Front of house illumination, however, is not purely aesthetic. Used correctly, it can help secure your home and make it more accessible to those you welcome.

In addition, effectively setting up front of house lighting can help to deter unwanted attention. However, it makes sense to try and create a look that’s both aesthetically pleasing and practical for the years ahead. At Arrow Electrical, we are always pleased to provide a variety of looks and fittings to enhance your approach.

Let’s look at why front of house lighting is so important. What’s more, let’s see how you can work it to your advantage.

Why Use Front of House Lighting?

Starting with the obvious, front of house lighting shows that you are available. This may not seem particularly worthwhile if you wish to protect your home, but it’s actually a deterrent. A home without any lights on in the dark is likely to be an appealing prospect to a would-be criminal.

Furthermore, front lighting can create the opposite effect to welcoming people in. That’s those people you wish to welcome, of course! Used appropriately and in line with your home’s facade, you can create warm, welcoming looks. As we’ll explore below, you can also use front of house lighting to create amazing, eye-catching effects.

Front of house lighting really can boost the appeal of your home in many ways. In one way, it’ll brighten up the approach and facade to help it look more appealing. In another, the best lighting options can, and will, boost the financial value of your property. Therefore, it is all the more reason to consider taking your time to choose ideal fittings.

We highly recommend using front of house lighting for safety and image enhancement. For example, our up-down 6W double adjustable wall light will do the trick in a variety of setups. We provide options available in grey, matt white, and matt black. Therefore, there are many options regardless of whether you have a classic or contemporary property.

Front of house lighting is surprisingly inexpensive and simple to set up and maintain. Modern installations run on energy-efficient LEDs, meaning you can expect low running costs. If you set them up correctly, they won’t splash glare across your front approach.

Many properties arrive with security lights and front of house bulbs as standard. However, there are plenty of motivations for considering a refresh. Older outdoor lighting and security light standards will deteriorate over time. Therefore, refreshing and upgrading your lighting alongside other property elements makes perfect sense.

At Arrow Electrical, we want to make this process as simple as possible for you!

Creating Depth and Effect

Front of house lighting can also have a fantastic effect on landscaping in your front garden. Were you aware that you can use outdoor lighting adorning your front approach to create shadow effects? Primarily, it would help if you remembered that your outdoor space has multiple dimensions.

Therefore, you need to be careful when balancing the different surfaces and areas you illuminate. Consider your background and your borders, for example. What’s more, for the best effect, you shouldn’t leave any spaces without illumination! Purely lighting up your front door might look odd if no other elements of your facade match.

You can create different levels of depth depending on how you angle your lights, too. If you choose to set up wall lights that adorn either side of your front entrance, be careful with where they beam. You may wish to set up a handful of extra lights, too, to create silhouettes.

Creating silhouettes is as simple as angling light wide onto a wall or object. Beaming directly onto things will create deeper shadows. Therefore, be sure that you play around with where the light travels to create different effects.

When it comes to adequate lighting flanking on either side of your door – or even above it – choose multiple lights. You can’t get away with a single light solution – symmetry is vital. However, as with all outdoor lights, you need to be careful not to overpower the brightness or glare.

For the most effective depth and inspiring aesthetic, you should avoid lighting windows. This is a no-go when it comes to glare. This is hardly going to work well inside and out – it’s a shortcut to a headache at the very least!

You may not be too focused on creating special or fanciful effects. However, you’d be surprised at how dramatic you can make the average property look! The best part is that you have a complete say over how to dress up your home in new lighting solutions. For example, why not consider our up-down adjustable beam lights?

Highlighting and Blending

Anyone with any experience in exterior landscaping and lighting will know that highlighting is a plus. You can do a wonderful thing with outdoor lighting, such as front of house fittings, to highlight focal areas. For example, you may wish to bring out elements of your door or framing or specific plants. A great way to highlight focal points is to beam large and long into plants and greenery.

Uplighting, for example, is extremely powerful – and its beams don’t have to be intense. Uplighting into taller plants, shrubs or trees will ensure that you draw out the greenery at the front of the house. It’s easy to assume that a quick wall light or a simple bulb will highlight pot plants. But, as mentioned, there’s some trial and error.

It would help if you also considered blending – again, as mentioned, isolating light can stick out badly. Therefore, you need to be careful to balance and wash light without causing glare. The answer is not simply installing more lights. It’s a case of being careful with angles and positions – and again, it’s in your power to tweak and adjust.

A good starting point is to find light fittings that blend with your exterior colours and shades. For example, softer or more neutral tones will benefit from grey and white casings and finishes. A good choice might be an up-down beam light in white. This option may be a stark look for darker tones

but will work well for whitewashed walls.

Ensuring that your light fittings don’t stick out awkwardly before turning on is a great start. However, it’s up to you from there – which means it pays to practice with light before you invest and install. Be sure to space out your potential lighting points before you buy.

Don’t see this as a difficult task – as it can be a lot of fun to plan out! It’s also prudent to ensure that you have a few second and third opinions on standby.

Lighting the Way

Let’s focus on further practicalities of front of house lighting. As mentioned, external lighting out front will be efficient in welcoming people to your property. However, simply setting up one or two basic wall lights may not be enough if you want to go all-out on the biggest welcome possible!

Beaming wide and long is a great idea – and you can also marry wall lights with spotlights. Consider installing sporadic lights and spots along your front approach to help guide people. Do also consider being very careful with overdoing the glare or the light intensity.

When set up strategically, path lights beaming downwards will also be good for your visitors. No one wants to have to visit your home being blinded on the way up! Therefore, consider planning your lighting and outdoor setup for a visitor, not just as the homeowner. Again, this will mean some planning and trial-and-error on your part before you buy.

Directional lighting is not only helpful from an aesthetical perspective. Lighting your driveway and approach is extremely important for safety and security. Therefore, visitors, you welcome to your property, are not at risk of accidents. LED lights won’t add glare when used sparingly, meaning you can carefully light the way without distraction.

Do also remember that lighting the front of your home in this way won’t mean it’s less secure. This style of lighting and setup will ensure that you show you’re on your property. If you don’t wish to draw too much attention to your home, you can balance things your way. There’s nothing to say that you have to wash the whole of your approach when you only need a few choice splashes.

It’s always prudent to set up wall lights at the entrance. Consider a stunning, neutral look such as an up-down adjustable double beam in matt black.

Unlimited Possibilities

The possibilities in outdoor landscaping are unlimited – and they don’t start and end with your greenery. If you’ve ever worked with outdoor lighting before, you will already know how much of a change lighting can make. If you already have outdoor lights set up for security alone, consider the kerb appeal of an upgrade.

If you’re keen to welcome more people to your home, look carefully at how you present your property from the outside. You could have the largest or most fanciful-looking property in the daylight, but what about after dark? Your aim is to make your property appealing and welcoming at all hours of the day.

You may not always notice how your home looks in the dark. Therefore, it’s worth practising with different lighting solutions after dusk. If you were visiting your home for the first time, what’s the impression that strikes you? Does this approach look safe and warm or cold and disjointed?

Landscape lighting is highly appealing not only from your visitors’ perspective but also from yours. Coming home to an elegantly designed property after a long day at work will feel amazing – and it’s perfectly achievable! As with all interior and exterior design areas, focus on letting your home and lighting portray your personality.

As mentioned, it’s worth keeping in mind property worth, too – consider lighting and landscaping to boost financial value. However, do also consider the possibilities for when you are selling a property. While many home viewings will take place during the day, potential buyers may choose to visit after dark. After all, prospective buyers will want the whole picture – not just a few angles!

It’s essential to keep a balance in mind. It’s easy enough to go overboard when setting up external lights. This is especially the case when you want to make a good impression. Therefore, choose a handful of effective options from Arrow’s broad catalogue to help lighten things up.

Conclusion

It is easy to assume that front lighting is purely for safety or security. However, the lighting you choose and direct can change how your home looks! Ergo, you need to balance practicality and kerb appeal carefully. This appeal isn’t just for visitors, but for you, too!

Up-lighting, back lighting, and shadowing are all great ways to help make your front facade work harder. What’s more, you can achieve all of these effects with minimal installation and setup. What we do advise, however, is to think carefully about where you’d like to place lights. Be sure to practice and plan before leaping into any given installations.

Otherwise, the way you set up and manage your front of house lighting is entirely up to you. How could you enhance the way your facade and front door appear to others? Could you light the way more effectively? Let Arrow Electrical help.