How to Add Drama and Value to Your Home
By L.J. BUTTERFIELD :: June 26, 2006

It’s hard to see great design in the dark.

Sometimes it’s even harder to see great design under the glare of harsh lights.

Golden rule: good lighting is essential when trying to make an impact.

By now we all know that the flicker of candlelight can help us look our physical best. That playing with shadows and high lights in a home can alter the look of architectural features and that, in theater, even time and space can be delineated with proper lighting techniques.

But how about the last vestige of our lives that, until recently, has been left unlit: the exterior of our homes.

Outdoor living has grown exponentially of late. Between full kitchens and designer fabrics, back yards are increasingly beginning to resemble indoor spaces.

So the time is ripe to turn the visual impact of our exteriors up a notch and add some drama to our neighborhoods with landscape lighting design.

“It’s clear that there is a trend here,” said Bob DiMartino, owner of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives in Mount Kisco and Carmel, which serves Westchester, Fairfield and other counties in the lower Hudson Valley.

“A lot more is being spent on outdoor lighting and outdoor living areas now,” he said. “And with pretty significant dollars going into their homes, people want to be able to see them at night. In fact, during the week most customers are only home at night.”

DiMartino has recently been approached with the theory that most people, after jumping on the interior-renovation bandwagon led by networks like HGTV, have completed designing their indoor spaces and are now in search of focusing their attention to detail elsewhere.

And their focus has turned inside out. “Television definitely brings out trends,” said Randall.

The trend makes sense

Landscaping and exterior architectural features add major value to a home and deserve the attention of passers-by even at night.

“It’s a waste of money if you can’t light it up,” agrees Jason Randall, lighting designer at 85-year-old community staple Klaff’s with locations in Norwalk, Westport and Danbury. “It brings out the value of the house.”

“If people have spent a lot of money on their home and details, the right lighting is going to show it off,” said Jeffery Heath, general manager of decorative lighting at Klaff’s in South Norwalk (SoNo).

“It’s theatrical, just like a stage,” said Lisa Passero, buyer at Klaff’s. “And this is the time of year when people want the lighting,” she said.

“It does make a big difference,” said Randall.

With so many options out there, mixing up the intensity of the light can produce some amazing effects.

“You can do silhouetting, up-lighting and down-lighting,” said Randall. “If you have stonework you can do grazing. Grazing gives any stonework you have a 3D effect.”

“Grazing light definitely gives a property a lot of depth,” agrees Heath. “You lose all that texture if you don’t graze surfaces that are 3D.”

There are so many different ways to accent space around the home that even small, unassuming areas can be transformed to look like a well-designed park.

“It is incredible what people are doing in back yards now,” said DiMartino. “Even in modest homes.”

Homeowners that live on already established properties are catching on fast to this new trend but homeowners in new construction homes almost always incorporate lighting design around their property; especially because they have done some landscaping.

“Almost always in new homes the customer is going to want to do landscape lighting,” said Heath
“What we’ll get are people who have built new homes,” agrees Randall. “They buy lighting to complement a new landscape design. They need light to accent it,” he said.

The process

Installing lights around a property is a much easier process today then it was a few years ago.

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives uses a portable lighting system that can be brought to a customer’s home and set up so the homeowner can see and approve the design before the project begins.

“We send designers out at night with an extensive kit of lights,” said DiMartino. “Customers can pretty much see what it’s going to look like beforehand. It’s hard to tell whether a customer can visualize what you visualize,” he said.

“A portable lighting system allows us to have our clients make it their own. It’s the only way to do lighting.”

“I know, without a doubt, that the customer is going to be happy,” he said. “In fact, we’re so confident we don’t even take a deposit.”

In Norwalk, Klaff’s has allocated an entire room in its shop for customers to get a sense of what lighting they want.

“We have a landscape room,” said Randall. “And we’ll go to people’s houses at night and discuss the design with them.”

Proof that lighting design has recently become a customer-friendly business.

“The ease with which lighting can be installed now and the flexibility you have has changed since the use of low-voltage lighting. Cords don’t have to be buried so deeply underground anymore,” said Heath.

“There is definitely better, low-voltage lighting,” agrees DiMartino. “It allows us to go in after the landscaping is in. We can bury our wire without disturbing anything. It’s easier to change and to add to,” he said.

“And if the lighting is subtle and done properly, you don’t see the source of the light, just the interesting plantings or architectural features.”

Though good design is definitely a driving force for this trend, extensive lighting isn’t only for aesthetics.

“When you walk up to a house in the dark you really want to try to illuminate your way,” said Heath. “I think it’s a safety and security issue as well,” he said.

Whatever the reason, homeowners in Westchester and Fairfield counties are illuminating their neighborhoods one by one.

“Certainly people are very aware of lighting now,” said Heath. “They understand that you can’t be dependant on one fixture anymore.”

“Especially in this area,” said Randall. “We sell a lot of hand-done products; more high-end, natural metals like copper or brass.”

“Our customers definitely have a higher awareness of outdoor living,” said DiMartino. “People in this area are very in tune to the trend.”

So, while darkness descends around the hemisphere, our counties are lighting up.

“We tell customers, ‘It’s going to look like a resort at night,” said DiMartino. “If they agree, we’re happy.”