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Light Done Right: Porch and Deck Light Design
by Dawn West
Home Improvement Ideas Columnist
Here's a recipe for boring porch and deck lighting: put up a single light above your front door for your porch lighting in front and a pair of lights attached to your house for your deck lighting in back. Serviceable, I suppose, but yawn. Want to make things a little more exciting when the sun goes down? Here are some tips to help you light things up in your next porch and deck lighting design project.
Lighting will make all the difference in the look and feel of your porch and deck by night. When it comes to porch and deck light design, keep the following in mind.
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Tip #1 -- Find a Lighting Focal Point
Bright, all-over light will make your porch or deck look like a prison yard, not like a comfy place to relax for the evening. But at the same time, dark corners, or worse yet, darkness overall, is hardly enticing. The key is to provide enough warm light to give your porch and deck an all-over glow, but then to choose one or two points to highlight. For porches, an extra light near your front door is not only helpful, it also creates a welcoming feeling for the entrance to your home. For decks, an extra light near a patio table or a few lights around the perimeter highlighting your flower boxes will give your eyes lovely places to rest.
Tip #2 -- Move Away From the House
One of the reasons many homeowners stick to a single boring porch light attached to the front of their home or a couple of boring deck lights attached near the back door is that free standing outdoor lights set off alarms in their heads -- expensive, expensive, expensive! But the truth is you no longer have to pay a contractor to lay ground wire and for digging things up to put in a lamp. Wireless free standing lights are easy to come by and are more affordable than you might imagine. Make sure to check out your options before you start your porch and deck lighting design plan.
About the Author
Dawn West teaches writing at Oregon State University. She holds a B.A. in English from Harvard University.
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