The Wonderful World of Outdoor Lighting

As you can imagine, I see a lot of lighting fixtures in my line of work.  Between selling, buying, and doing design work in residential new construction, I have plenty of access to what I call, the wonderful world of lighting.  From formal to contemporary to modern and everything in between I enjoy mixing it up when I help my clients choose lighting.  It’s not necessary to pick a particular type of lighting but more important to mix colors and materials correctly so that they blend well together.  Making everything too matchy-match is most definitely not the popular thing to do.  But rather picking a metal and a color and finish that you like might be the way to go.  Then mixing it with a color that blends but doesn’t match precisely.  I prefer to pick a style genre that I’ll talk more about in the following article.

Farmhouse

Some people refer to this type of outdoor lighting as more of an industrial look.  It’s heavier, larger, and little more retro than other lighting.  Typically, it comes in standard colors like black, brown, white, or silver.  Other styles come is more colors than this one would.  It just so happens that these are typically used to contrast a house that’s painted white or off white to make a statement.  They come with both an exposed bulb and a cage over the bulb as more of a design aesthetic than a functional one.  I personally love the farmhouse look including this lighting.  It’s practical and easy to mix with almost any other streamlined style of light so that if you’re planning any up lighting anyplace or landscaping lights you can easily come up with styles that blend without being exactly that same.  And if you want to be creative you can find this style of light as an antique if you know where to go.  And the patina of an antique light is hard to replicate.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Traditional

This style of outdoor lighting tends to be more formal and have scrolling or some other more ornate metal work on it.  There tends to be softer, rounder edges and have colored or intentionally flawed glass with bubbles in it or not completely clear or frosted.  The intent is to create a look that is a bit older or more antique which might blend better with a design that includes statement looks like a wrought iron fence or cobble stone look pavers or matched with French doors or cottage style windows.  Black or brown would be the likely color to put in a traditional outdoor design.  And no LED lighting. You would want to use a softer light than that or even an Edison bulb.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Contemporary

I like to think of this design genre as a cross between old and new.  It combines clean lines with light traditional elements.  For instance, you might have a rectangular shape instead of rounder and a cleaner style but not be too ultra-modern and instead somewhere in between.  It gives you more opportunity to mix and match metal colors like flat or brushed brass without looking too formal.  And you can pair it up with different types of patio surfaces like finished concrete as well as pavers without clashing.  A contemporary style is more popular with more people because of its flexibility.   Mixing colors and materials is a plus and gives you that boarder line eclectic look while still looking put together.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Modern

This choice is not necessarily what I gravitate to but it’s a choice.  I tend to like to use modern elements in my design work rather than go with a full-on modern design.  I feel like it softens the hard edges of modern lighting to mix it with something more contemporary.  Needless to say, it’s popular or it wouldn’t exist.  Outdoor lighting that is more modern tends to be cleaner, simpler, and slimmer in look and have a less is more element to it.  Since it doesn’t tend to make a statement, I recommend using it when you have landscaping and other materials that do make a statement.  Modern lighting goes nicely with a more modern looking home obviously.  Homes with straight roof lines and modern garage or front doors and back yards with a minimalist look that incorporate a lot of straight lines do the trick.  The awesome thing about modern style lighting is that it comes in a lot of different colors.  From white to brass to blues and the basic black and white and even gray you have plenty of choices.  And don’t be afraid to use bolder colors when choosing modern designs.  That’s kind of the point.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

For more design information or to find out more about the Priority Group and Sallie Elliott go to https://linktr.ee/omahaprioritygroup. There you can find all our online links and check out whatever you might specifically be interested in from design to real estate to our blog and more.