At Gemstone Lights, we love older homes. They’re full of character, interesting stories, and small architectural details that make a house feel like home. Permanent outdoor lighting can work beautifully for older homes, lighting up these stunning features so you can enjoy them all year round. Here are some ideas and inspiration for combining modern outdoor lighting with older homes.

How Can I Ensure My Lights Won’t Stand Out in an Older Building?

This is a key concern for many homeowners.

At Gemstone Lights, we install our lights within a track, which we attach to a building’s soffit and fascia. These tracks are color-matched and designed to blend in. This means you probably won’t even notice the track; it’s just a long line of lights that are perfectly spaced to light up even the most awkward-shaped buildings.

This means they should blend in nicely and not stand out as strange or mismatched compared to the style of your home.

How to Make Outdoor Lighting Work for Older Homes

Owning an older home is lovely, but introducing any modern elements can feel like a risk. How do you ensure that any additions, like outdoor lighting, blend into your home beautifully without looking strange or mismatched?

Our outdoor lights work well on different kinds of buildings, and they offer so many conveniences (like customization, lighting on a timer, highlighting specific zones, and having access to fun, interesting patterns) that it’s well worth having them installed.

Here’s how to make the most of modern lighting in older homes:

Farmhouse

Farmhouses are beautiful! The good thing about them is that combining modern touches with the original interiors can be a little easier. The ‘rustic’ look benefits from features like bright, customizable lights, for example, or large windows to make the most of the views if the house is surrounded by land.

As farmhouses have features like wide front porches and outdoor spaces that you’ll want to spend a lot of time in, good outdoor lighting can make a huge difference. A combination of track and flood lights can create a warm glow that feels cozy, welcoming, and safe: just the vibe you want for a farmhouse.

Farmhouses can sometimes be awkward shapes, with many small areas to light up. We can fit our lights around sharp angles, so no areas should be left unlit.

You don’t need to use every light each time, either. You can control lights individually to create stunning architectural patterns.

Victorian

Victorian-style houses are stunning, with steep roofs, big bay windows, and often an asymmetrical look. They’re perfect if you prefer classic interiors (think wood paneling, fireplaces, and ornate wallpaper).

Victorian houses can be very ornate and often have two to three stories with quite unusual rooflines. When it comes to lighting your Victorian, the idea is to draw attention to the house’s top half— they look striking from a distance due to their impressive height and beautiful features.

Architectural lighting works like a dream here, and while our lights incorporate modern technology, they will look good on your Victorian home. You can isolate as many lights as you like, making specific areas subtly brighter or dimmer or changing colors for certain zones.

We recommend classic warm white for Victorian homes. It creates a subtle glow and doesn’t feel as harsh or modern as a cooler white. Our RGBWW lights create a true warm white, which will light up those tricky little corners without feeling too intrusive or out of place. The problem with Victorian homes is that some of these unique features can get lost in shadow, so if your unusually shaped home needs a bit of a lift, our lighting can provide that.

Edwardian

Edwardian homes are often grand, with big windows, large rooms, high ceilings, and beautiful front gardens. With beautiful trims and stunning brickwork, having outdoor lighting that matches the vibe is important.

Luckily, our lights can work for larger homes. As you can see from the above picture from our gallery, our track lights look beautiful and are not too intrusive: they complement the roofline nicely.

 

Permanent lights are super helpful for Christmas time. Decorating a large building with string lights can be a real pain, especially when the building is tall or has awkward angles. Our lights, color-matched to your home, can be switched up for Christmas (or any other celebration), making it much easier to celebrate without the stress and physical exertion that comes with it!

This also means you can switch up the lighting to match the vibe of any gatherings you host. If you love to fill your Edwardian-style home with people, use the app to create a custom lighting pattern to match.

Mid-Century Modern

Mid-century modern buildings look stunning with permanent outdoor lighting. Open-floor plans, exposed ceilings and beams, and clean lines make strong lighting feel like a natural addition.

A combination of flood lights and track lights can work well for mid-century modern homes; you can see this in the above example from our Instagram gallery. It can help to accentuate any features you want to focus on (like flood lights for trees, for example – this means you can enjoy your landscaping even on dark evenings).

 

You can also isolate entryways, which can help to pull focus to the right place. If you have a lot of large windows and doors, having a focus point can help (and can keep people safe as they leave and enter in the darker, colder months). Mid-century modern homes look beautiful when they’re well-lit, and track lights can help balance the light shining from the windows, so you can still see the surrounding building in the darkness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How disruptive is the installation process?

Answer: The installation process takes about a day to complete, although it can vary depending on the size and complexity of the building.

We are minimally disruptive. We install flood lights by burying the cables under the ground, which means people won’t trip over them, and they affect your lawn care. We do this carefully and with minimal disruption to your lawn or front yard.

Question: How do I set up zones to light up specific areas?

Answer: You can do this using the app:

• Go to ‘Create Zone’
• Select the lights you want to include in the zone by tapping them – the lights will flash on your home to show where they are, so you can do this outside to see the specific lights you want to include
• Once you’ve done this, select ‘Create’
• The new zone should be visible. You can now change the lighting in that specific area.

You can find out more in our detailed guide.

Our Final Thoughts on Modern Outdoor Lighting for Older Homes

Any changes you make to an older home can feel nerve-wracking, even if you’re keen to incorporate modern elements. There’s art in combining modern technology with the beauty of older buildings. Still, we think our permanent lights offer so many benefits that they are worth the effort for future convenience.

For more, contact one of our Authorized Dealers for a quote.